bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Heat transfer in lattice structures during metal additive manufacturing: numerical exploration of temperature field evolution
Authors: Downing David , Leary Martin , McMillan Matthew , Alghamdi Ahmad , Brandt Milan
Published: January 2020

Purpose

Metal additive manufacturing is an inherently thermal process, with intense localised heating and for sparse lattice structures, often rapid uneven cooling. Thermal effects influence manufactured geometry through residual stresses and may also result in non-isotropic material properties. This paper aims to increase understanding of the evolution of the temperature field during fabrication of lattice structures through numerical simulation.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses a reduced order numerical analysis based on “best-practice” compromise found in literature to explore design permutations for lattice structures and provide first-order insight into the effect of these design variables on the temperature field.

Findings

Instantaneous and peak temperatures are examined to discover trends at select lattice locations. Insights include the presence of vertical struts reduces overall lattice temperatures by providing additional heat transfer paths; at a given layer, the lower surface of an inclined strut experiences higher temperatures than the upper surface throughout the fabrication of the lattice; during fabrication of the lower layers of the lattice, isolated regions of material can experience significantly higher temperatures than adjacent regions.

Research limitations/implications

Due to the simplifying assumptions and multi-layer material additions, the findings are qualitative in nature. Future research should incorporate additional heat transfer mechanisms.

Practical implications

These findings point towards thermal differences within the lattice which may manifest as dimensional differences and microstructural changes in the built part.

Originality/value

The paper provides qualitative insights into the effect of local geometry and topology upon the evolution of temperature within lattice structures fabricated in metal additive manufacturing.
Organizational learning through projects: a case of a German university
Authors: Rose Anna-Lena , Dee Jay , Leisyte Liudvika
Published: January 2020

Purpose

While projects can generate highly relevant knowledge to inform operations and improve performance, organizations face the difficulty of retaining knowledge once a project ceases to exist. This study aims to examine how project work can lead to organizational learning and, in particular, how knowledge transfer and social learning practices shape project-to-organization learning in a setting where projects complement a traditional functional form of organization.

Design/methodology/approach

This case study examined a project for inclusive teacher training at a German university. Data were collected and analyzed following an ethnographic approach, including participatory observation, a focus group discussion and 14 interviews with project participants.

Findings

The findings support the idea that much of the learning that occurs within projects is tacit. In this study, tacit knowledge from the project was shared with the organization through social learning practices. These social learning practices had a larger impact on project-to-organization learning than knowledge transfer practices such as codification. Additionally, the findings suggest that when knowledge transfer and social learning practices are in conflict, project-to-organization learning will likely suffer.

Originality/value

This study contributes to existing literature by examining the relative importance of technical and social dimensions of project-to-organization learning and by focusing on universities as an example of organizations where projects operate alongside a traditional functional form. Practical implications suggest that to facilitate project-to-organization learning, universities may need to enact a combination of new practices, some designed to codify and transfer knowledge and others created to generate new interpretations and build common knowledge across organizational boundaries.
Optimization of VCR engine parameters using particle swarm optimization-based desirability approach
Authors: Y. Datta Bharadwaz , Budda Govinda Rao , T. Bala Krishna Reddy
Published: January 2020

Purpose

This paper aims to deal with the optimization of engine operational parameters such as load, compression ratio and blend percentage of fuel using a combined approach of particle swarm optimization (PSO) with Derringer’s desirability.

Design/methodology/approach

The performance parameters such as brake thermal efficiency (BTHE), brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), CO, HC, NOx and smoke are considered as objectives with compression ratio, blend percentage and load as input factors. Optimization is carried out by using PSO coupled with the desirability approach.

Findings

From results, the optimum operating conditions are found to be at compression ratio of 18.5 per cent of fuel blend and 11 kg of load. At this input’s parameters of the engine, outputs performance parameters are found to be 34.84 per cent of BTHE, 0.29 kg/kWh of BSFC, 2.86 per cent of CO, 13 ppm of HC, 490 ppm of NOx and 26.25 per cent of smoke.

Originality/value

The present study explores the abilities of both particle swarm algorithm and desirability approach when used together. The combined approach resulted in faster convergence and better prediction capability. The present approach predicted performance characteristics of the variable compression ratio engine with less than 10 per cent error.
Disentangling the effects of methanogen community and environment on peatland greenhouse gas production by a reciprocal transplant experiment
Authors: Juottonen Heli
Published: January 2020

Northern peatlands consist of a mosaic of peatland types that vary spatially and temporally and differ in their methane (CH4) production. Microbial community composition and environment both potentially control the processes that release carbon from anoxic peat either as CH4 or as carbon dioxide (CO2), a less potent greenhouse gas than CH4. However, the respective roles of these controls remain unclear, which prevents incorporating microbes in the predictions of peatland CH4 emissions.

Here, a reciprocal transplant experiment was carried out to separate the influences of microbial community and environment in CH4 and anaerobic CO2 production. Peat from an acidic Sphagnum bog and a sedge fen with higher pH was enclosed in membrane bags with a pore size of 0.2 µm, preventing microbial colonization from the outside, and transplanted in the field for 2 months.

Potential CH4 production was primarily controlled by the environment. The conditions in the bog suppressed the initially higher activity of fen methanogens and reduced CH4 production by 79%. Against expectations, the inhibition was not specific to acetate‐using Methanotrichaceae. Reciprocal transplantation favoured Methanosarcinaceae and potentially methylotrophic methanogenesis in general. Bog methanogens, mostly hydrogenotrophic Methanoregulaceae, retained their community structure and activity in the fen with a slight increase (+37%) in CH4 production.

Anaerobic CO2 production was controlled by both the microbial community and the environment. Transplantation led to increased CO2 production in both bog (+50%) and fen peat (+57%) with distinct bacterial community, showing that the new environment directed more carbon to other anaerobic processes than methanogenesis.

Taken together, these results relate differences in CH4 production of bogs and fens to ecophysiology of specific methanogen groups. The sensitiveness of fen methanogens to the acidic conditions in Sphagnum bogs can help explain the decrease in CH4 emission in the typical boreal peatland succession from young fens to older bogs. Increase in anaerobic CO2 versus CH4 production with transplantation shows that disturbances of boreal peatlands can activate poorly defined pathways of anaerobic decomposition.

A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
MicroRNA‐876‐5p represses the cell proliferation and invasion of colorectal cancer through suppressing YAP signalling via targeting RASAL2
Authors: Ren Li , Zhang Zhiyong , Feng Yun , Luo Miaosha , Hao Zhiming
Published: January 2020

Aberrant expression of microRNA‐876‐5p (miR‐876‐5p) is implicated in the progression of multiple human cancers. However, the potential role of miR‐876‐5p in colorectal cancer remains poorly understood. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the potential role of miR‐876‐5p in colorectal cancer. miR‐876‐5p expression was significantly downregulated in colorectal cancer tissues and cell lines compared with normal controls. Gain‐of‐function assays revealed that miR‐876‐5p overexpression effectively repressed the malignant behaviours of colorectal cancer cells, including cell proliferation, colony formation, and invasion. Bioinformatics analysis predicted that RAS protein activator like 2 (RASAL2), a potential oncogene for colorectal cancer, is a putative miR‐876‐5p target gene. A luciferase reporter assay confirmed that miR‐876‐5p directly binds to the 3′‐untranslated region (UTR) of RASAL2. Furthermore, both RASAL2 messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein expression were negatively modulated by miR‐876‐5p in colorectal cancer cells. Notably, there was an inverse correlation between miR‐876‐5p and RASAL2 expression in colorectal cancer tissue specimens. Moreover, miR‐876‐5p was involved in regulating the activation of Yes‐associated protein (YAP) signalling through inhibiting RASAL2. However, the miR‐876‐5p‐mediated antitumour effect on colorectal cancer cells was partially reversed by restoring RASAL2 expression. Notably, miR‐876‐5p upregulation impeded the tumour growth of colorectal cancer cells in vivo in nude mice. Overall, these results demonstrated that miR‐876‐5p exerts an antitumour function in colorectal cancer by targeting RASAL2 to suppress YAP signalling activation. These findings highlight the importance of the miR‐876‐5p/RASAL2/YAP axis in colorectal cancer progression and suggest that miR‐876‐5p is a potential therapeutic target for treating colorectal cancer.
Inhibition of microRNA‐199a‐5p ameliorates oxygen‐glucose deprivation/reoxygenation‐induced apoptosis and oxidative stress in HT22 neurons by targeting Brg1 to activate Nrf2/HO‐1 signalling
Authors: Li Feng , Liang Jing , Tong Hua , Zhu Shuai , Tang Dongfang
Published: January 2020

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as critical regulators of neuronal survival during cerebral ischaemia/reperfusion injury. Accumulating evidence has shown that miR‐199a‐5p plays a crucial role in regulating apoptosis and survival in various cell types. However, whether miR‐199a is involved in regulating neuronal survival during cerebral ischaemia/reperfusion injury remains unknown. In this study, we aimed to explore the biological role of miR‐199a‐5p in regulating neuronal injury induced by oxygen‐glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R), an in vitro cellular model of cerebral ischaemia and reperfusion injury. We found that miR‐199a‐5p expression was significantly altered in neurons in response to OGD/R treatment. Overexpression of miR‐199a‐5p facilitated OGD/R‐induced apoptosis and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, whereas miR‐199a‐5p inhibition alleviated OGD/R‐induced apoptosis and ROS production. Notably, our results identified Brahma‐related gene 1 (Brg1) as a target gene of miR‐199a‐5p. Moreover, inhibition of miR‐199a‐5p promoted the activation of nuclear factor‐erythroid‐2‐related factor‐2 (Nrf2)/heme oxygenase‐1 (HO‐1) signalling via targeting Brg1. However, silencing of Brg1 markedly reversed the miR‐199a‐5p inhibition‐mediated neuroprotective effect. Taken together, our results suggest that downregulation of miR‐199a‐5p protects neurons from OGD/R‐induced neuronal injury through upregulating Brg1 to activate Nrf2/HO‐1 signalling. The miR‐199a‐5p/Brg1/Nrf2/HO‐1 regulation axis may play an important role in regulating neuronal survival during cerebral ischaemic/reperfusion injury in vivo.
Don't air your dirty laundry: Party leadership contests and parliamentary election outcomes
Authors: SO FLORENCE
Published: January 2020

Staging an open contest is a democratic method to choose a party leader, though its electoral consequences remain unclear. I argue that leadership contests are electorally detrimental to governing parties. Competitive contests signal intraparty policy and/or personality conflict to voters, which damages governing parties’ perceived unity as well as competence in the policy‐making process. Thus, leadership contests undermine governing parties’ performances in parliamentary elections. Moreover, since voters evaluate governing parties’ record in office more than their rhetoric, unlike opposition parties, they cannot repair the image of incompetence/disunity by reshaping their rhetoric and/or policy direction. This implies that leadership contests damage governing parties’ electoral prospects more than they do to opposition parties’ electoral performances. Results from statistical testing with original data from 14 countries support my argument. In addition, these results are not endogenous to the contests’ timing; degree of competitiveness; leadership selection rules; whether or not the incumbent retains office; norms of contests; or how predecessors left office. These findings underscore the need to investigate the relationship between intraparty dynamics and election outcomes.
Believe in AI: Will You Pray for a Chatbot?
Authors: TORALES ANDRE
Published: January 2020

Automation and Artificial Intelligence are defying the status quo making us rethink our jobs, our relations and, philosophically, our lives purpose. This emerging trend will affect every aspect of our lives: economically, cultural and socially speaking. If you think that Ethnographic Research is a safe harbor from all these changes, because it is so human and qualitative, you may be wrong.

In this Pecha‐Kucha, I want to share a story that I, as a researcher, in face of users' pain points bigger than which button to click on an App, thought about products and services to help people using design thinking. During this side‐quest, I've faced a lot of challenges and found the answer in developing a chatbot, characterized as a Virtual God, to help people and give advice for better lives.

People would tell their problems to a chatbot? People would rely on the chatbot, powered by artificial intelligence, advice, and readings? People would truly believe in the chatbot to make their wishes come true, just as a thousand‐of‐years religious god? What are the implications of AI and chatbots for our job as researchers? Let's find out together in this presentation.
Data Walks into a Bar: A Love Story
Authors: STEAGER TABITHA
Published: January 2020

As a qualitative researcher, I was always a bit afraid – if not disdainful – of quantitative data. This pecha kucha tells the uneasy love story of how and why I fell in love with quantitative data. Transitioning from life as an ethnographer who avoided quantitative work at any cost, I found myself working as an applied researcher using a method that relied heavily on large amounts of quantitative data. I had to learn how to tell a story using a data format with which I was relatively unfamiliar. I was also doubtful about quantitative data and that it was often privileged over qualitative work and angry at the power it sometimes held over people's lives. However, as I began to get closer to it, I realized that I was ascribing quantitative data an agency of its own, an agency it definitely doesn't have. I moved through my doubt and ultimately came to fall deeply in love with the sweet spot that exists when we can marry qualitative and quantitative data to give voice to those whose agency has sometimes been stripped from them through the use of quantitative data and instead use it to help tell a more insightful and complete story.
Empowered, Confident, and Prepared: Driving Chatbot Product Vision Through User Research
Authors: MAHAR MOLLY , BENNETT GREGORY A.
Published: January 2020

This case study explores how a series of customer site visits to two international service centers drove design recommendations for a chatbot building platform that could encourage positive agent‐chatbot collaboration. The first part of the case focuses on the research undertaken by a team of user experience practitioners at the enterprise software company Salesforce. The team used contextual inquiry and group interviews to better understand the daily experience of customer service agents and service teams in search of ways to responsibly implement automation tools like chatbots within a service center environment. The second part of the case study highlights how the UX team applied these learnings into specific product recommendations and developed a set of principles that could drive the product forward while remaining empathetic and supportive of customer service agents.
Center Frame: Agency in the Lives of Researchers
Authors: PARKER BRANDY
Published: January 2020

We try to avoid being on camera, but as researchers, are we ever really out of frame? Centered around a life‐changing project that had lackluster results, this piece is a meditation on our agency, or lack of agency, as researchers. Our work gives us unique glimpses into worlds no one else is privy to, and what we experience changes us. At times, the most powerful advancement of our work is in our own lives.
Can Any Hairdresser Fix A Car?: Mechanics Seeking Agency in Automated Car Diagnostic Contexts, and How Observing Agency Can Help Designing a Car Diagnostic Tool
Authors: BRICKERT CHLOÉ HUIE , MONTAGU GUILLAUME
Published: January 2020

As part of an international research conducted for a French car manufacturer, a team of anthropologists and designers were asked to analyze the use of a car diagnostic tool by mechanics in their garages, in order to recommend ways of improving it. A single glance at the diagnostic tool's interface was enough to get a feel for mechanics' new reality: lines of codes and numbers, webpages filled with blue hyperlinks leading to readymade repair methods. Does being a mechanic in an automation era mean anything anymore? Based on findings from a study conducted in 5 countries with mixed ethnographic and UX methods, this case study explicits the interest of understanding mechanics as a profession ‐ or even more, as an art ‐ before studying the use of the tool itself, and mostly, it demonstrates how solutions can be contained in agency ‐ and how design and tech teams can find inspiration from bypasses, local initiatives, and informal rituals. From supervising an international team of researchers to finding similarities among cultural specificities, this paper also questions ethics and investigates the role of a diagnostic tool in supporting mechanics' job evolution.
Getting Us There: Ride‐Hailing Systems from the Drivers' Perspectives
Authors: KARN KEITH S. , HUTSON WILLIAM E.
Published: January 2020

Now that they are beyond the initial start‐up phase, it is time to take a critical look at ride‐hailing systems such as Uber and Lyft. This ethnographic case study investigates these systems from the drivers' perspectives and also addresses the ethnographic techniques and general approach that we used. Without a protocol, budget or equipment, we interviewed approximately 150 Uber, Lyft, and Taxi drivers in 23 US cities over 2 years during paid rides. Our loosely structured interview approach allowed us to collect information from drivers regarding the entire gamut of their jobs. This included how and why drivers work, their choice of work hours, rider pickups, driving, vehicle ownership and maintenance, rider behavior, perceptions of safety / danger, navigation, general likes and dislikes of the system, and financial matters related to their business. Our findings cover a wide range of issues, some bearing on poorly designed or missing functionality in the driver's mobile apps, but also spanning social, emotional, financial, and behavioral issues that impact the drivers. These issues directly relate to decision making, worker autonomy, and human agency.
Weighing Decisions in Monitoring and Evaluation of Clean Cookstoves
Authors: VENTRELLA JENNIFER , PEIFFER ERIN , ZHANG SHAOZENG , MacCARTY NORDICA
Published: January 2020

This case study examines agency within monitoring and evaluation (M&E) schemes for international development projects. Specifically, it evaluates a sensor to measure fuel consumption of clean cookstoves as a method of maintaining accountability and soliciting data on stove performance. Despite trends of increasingly automated M&E, the decisions of choosing, analyzing, and translating outcomes and indicators are influenced by stakeholder input. Through various rapid ethnographic methods including surveys and interviews with government agencies, non‐profits, and clean stove users, in addition to participant observation and focal follow of stove users in Central America and Uganda, the interactions and inputs of various agents throughout the project lifetime are assessed. Further, it is discussed that while not all actors were equitably engaged throughout the entirety of the project, sometimes as a result of misaligned goals, M&E can be leveraged as a communication mechanism between stakeholders to enable increased engagement and goal alignment.
Caregiver/Family Agency: Rebuilding Confidence, Play, Familiarity, and Passion in a Healthcare System
Authors: MESTAD ADAHEID L. , MOJTAHEDI AMIN
Published: January 2020

During recovery and transition to the ‘new normal’, the loss of agency for patients and families of patients who go through a major health disruptor such as transplant, cancer, or cardio‐vascular disease can be profound. Considering this, how can acute care hospitals help solve for caregivers' loss of agency? And what does the physicality of such effort in the confines of a hospital building look like? The goal of this case study is to (1) demonstrate how ethnographic thinking and design research can help a medical center understand the needs, values, rituals, and agency of a patients and their families; (2) show socio‐spatial solutions that can support the transition to the patient's and family's new normal.

The ethnographic study showed that the patients and families who go through a major health disruptor struggle with the loss of agency in various ways. While loss of agency can be obtuse, four themes emerged as contributing factors to the overall sense of loss: (1) loss of confidence; (2) loss of familiarity; (3) loss of play; (4) loss of passion. The degree of loss experienced was related to the severity of the health disruptor.

Socio‐spatial design solutions resulting from the research included a significant allocation of family‐centric space (e.g., experiential learning for family caregiver education, well‐being for family support, and family connection rooms), programs, services, products, and partnerships (to relieve and provide permission) for family caregivers to regain elements of agency.

This case study is written before the redesigned protocol and physical space design is completed‐and‐in‐practice. The research to‐date, however, was sufficient to persuade the client to commit to redesigning the family/caregiver experience as manifested in the design of the physical space as well as its accompanying protocols.
Designing Good Jobs: Participatory Ethnography and Prototyping in Service‐Oriented Work Ecosystems
Authors: CUCIUREAN‐ZAPAN MARTA , HAMMEL VICTORIA
Published: January 2020

Three service design projects, in hospitality, finance, and health care, highlight how to design for agency in the workplace, including the implementation of automated and data‐driven tools. Inspired by Tacchi, Slater, and Hearn's work on ethnographic action research, Amartya Sen's capabilities approach, and Gibson's affordances theory, this paper examines work as an ecosystem, in which workers' motivations, values, and ability to achieve what is important to them should be a continual input into how structures and tools are designed. In order to design for agency, teams must shape access to information in order to support workers' autonomy. Second, project outcomes should reflect the emotions and values which create a sense of progress and purpose. Third, tools, technologies, culture, and incentives within the work ecosystem should be aligned with workers' goals. Finally, workers must feel safe and protected from censure when they participate in co‐creating their own roles.
Borders and Walls: What Is the Agency of Architects in Geopolitical Conflicts?
Authors: LARA ANE GONZALEZ
Published: January 2020

Boundaries and borders have generated lots of attention in the political realm of our country over the last years. The proposed Wall between the United States and Mexico has created different perspectives from architects and builders across the country. Following this debate, a question arises: What is the agency of architecture and architects in this issue?

This presentation focuses on a Borders Studio taught at the University of New Mexico School of Architecture, a borderland school that draws students from both sides of the border. The studio was created after seeing how polarized and diverse the opinions about the proposed wall were among architects and builders and in order to stimulate the critical thinking abilities of the students.

The studio involved a series of projects that tackled different scales. Each student found their own voice on the conflict during the semester and the studio created a platform for them to bring issues like immigration, labor and politics to the classroom and question the agency of architects in geopolitical conflicts.

The presentation reflects the students' designs to create alternatives to the proposed wall focusing in the Chamizal Park in El Paso and Juarez.
Digital Selves and Distributed Agency: Redefining the Subject of Ethnography
Authors: KOCABAG GUNES
Published: January 2020

Digital identities are key to almost all aspects of life today. What happens when digital identities grow beyond just being partial, one‐dimensional representations of us, but become fully autonomous digital selves who can act on our behalf. Who or what will be the target for businesses trying to capture new customers, and what does that mean for our work as business anthropologists? Through practical examples, I take the audience through a thinking exercise and argue that future ethnographic practice needs to get beyond defending its own domain, open up and seek collaboration with many more disciplines that can complement our work as ethnographers.
Breaking the Language Barrier: India, the Digital Revolution, and Human Agency
Authors: ATHALYE SHUBHANGI , HENSHALL STUART
Published: January 2020

India is pioneering the future of low and illiterate populations and as a result changing the course of AI, human agency and how we empower the next connected billion+. In a country with such a complex linguistic and demographic landscape the challenges are mammoth. However, with the sudden cheap and easy access to the internet, mobile technology is proving to be the vehicle for human agency. It is proving to be the catalyst and throwing up new tools especially for those poorly equipped to adopt.

As an ethnographer I'm always struck with how the user behaves, adapts and changes to magical new tools. We go from a sense of wonder to a new form of tech literacy that will quickly surpass what they were ever able to do before. The questions posed are: How can technology reframe intention for lower literate populations? What new tools can be made available for the vernacular language users to help them express? Will these new emerging tools impact on how we interact in the future as well.
Ethnographic Agency in a Data Driven World
Authors: LEVIN NADINE
Published: January 2020

This paper argues that ethnographers can gain increased agency in data‐driven corporate environments by increasing their quantitative literacy: their ability to create, understand, and strategically use quantitative data to shape organizations. Drawing on the author's experience conducting strategic user research at a technology company, the paper explores how the ability to engage with quantitative data can increase ethnographers' independence and autonomy within organizations, and can also up‐level the role and value of qualitative research. The paper also explores how a deep familiarity with quantitative data can enable ethnographers to imbue quantitative data itself with new forms of agency, and can ultimately give ethnographers the tools to change institutions from within. With a greater understanding of how quantitative data is made and used, ethnographers can ensure that data is collected in representative ways, point out the limitations of existing metrics, and argue for new ways of measuring and understanding social life.
Vascular access‐related mortality in hemodialysis patients during and after hospitalization
Authors: Gil Giraldo Yohana , Muñoz Ramos Patricia , Ruano Pablo , Quiroga Borja
Published: January 2020

Long‐term prognosis is poorer in hemodialysis patients wearing a permanent catheter than in those with a fistula; however, few data are available regarding the survival of hospitalized patients according to their vascular access. The aim of the present study is to analyze the influence of vascular access in the prognosis of hemodialysis patients during hospitalization. A prospective observational study was conducted, including 100 consecutive hemodialysis patients that were hospitalized for any cause. At baseline, we collected epidemiological data, comorbidities, and variables related to the hospitalization (analytical values, reason for admission, and type of vascular access). We divided the whole sample into two groups regarding the vascular access (fistula or catheter), and compared associated variables and short‐term survival. We analyzed mortality during hospitalization and during follow‐up. Of the 100 patients studied, 71 (71%) were male, with a mean age of 71 ± 12 years. Fifty patients (50%) had fistulae as vascular access. Mean dialysis vintage was 60 ± 47 months. Eighteen patients (18%) died during the hospitalization and 27 (27%) at the end of the follow‐up (median 144 [47‐269] months). Variables associated to survival during hospitalization were vascular access, personal history of heart failure, dialysis vintage, and analytical values at admission such as low hemoglobin, high lactic acid, and low albumin. A regression model demonstrated that vascular access was an independent predictor of survival during hospitalization and, also, during the follow‐up. Permanent catheters should be avoided as they are independent predictors of mortality in hospitalized hemodialysis patients.
The effects of a gamified human resource management system on job satisfaction and engagement
Authors: Silic Mario , Marzi Giacomo , Caputo Andrea , Bal P. Matthijs
Published: January 2020

The pressures associated with the speed of competition, including the digitalization of workspaces, are increasing the need for modern organizations to drive employee satisfaction and engagement. Integrating gamification into the workplace has been identified as a possible strategy to promote employee participation, engagement and loyalty. Gamification is defined as the application of game design elements in a non‐game context, which, in this case, is the workplace. This article presents a 12‐month longitudinal study designed to investigate the role of gamification in fostering job satisfaction and engagement. The findings from a sample of 398 employees, including both treatment and control groups from a large multinational company that introduced a gamified human resource management (HRM) system, revealed the effects of certain gamification experiential outcomes related to driving employee satisfaction and engagement at work. Overall, our study highlights the possibilities of employing gamified HRM systems to influence employee attitudes and behavior at work.
Knee synovial fluid complement C3‐β chain levels correlate with clinical symptoms of knee osteoarthritis
Authors: Cheng Tzu Hsuan , Yoon Seung Ho , Lee Philip , Dimaculangan Dennis , Vikram Maheshwari Aditya , Zhang Ming
Published: January 2020

Aim

Early research found innate immune factor complement C3 in the synovial fluid (SF) and activated in serum of osteoarthritis (OA) patients. Whether synovial C3 comes from circulation, or is produced locally, is still unknown. It is also unclear whether synovial and circulating C3 is responsible to OA symptoms. A native C3 molecule consists of two chains, C3‐α and C3‐β. Small fragments breaking down from C3‐α chain in serum and SF were reported to be related to OA severity. Little is known if C3‐β chain is involved in the pathogenesis.

Method

In this study, we evaluated these important areas by biochemical analyses of C3‐α and C3‐β chains in both the SF and plasma of OA patients.

Results

Our results showed that C3‐α and C3‐β levels in SF did not correlate with those in plasma, suggesting that synovial C3 is independently and locally produced, rather than being “leaked” from circulation. Synovial C3‐β but not C3‐α levels correlated with pain, other OA symptoms, function in daily living, and sports/recreational activities. Plasma C3‐β levels only marginally correlated with pain, and plasma C3‐α levels did not correlate with any of these OA symptoms.

Conclusion

We present first‐hand evidence that the clinical symptoms of OA are mainly associated with C3 in the local SF rather than systemic circulation, suggesting local factors in the etiopathogenesis. Future local targeted therapies for pain management may be more effective and safer.
Revising Audit Plans to Address Fraud Risk: A Case of “Do as I Advise, Not as I Do”?*
Authors: Bauer Tim D. , Hillison Sean M. , Peecher Mark E. , Pomeroy Bradley
Published: January 2020

Prior research documents that auditors fail to revise audit plans to effectively address identified fraud cues. While auditors may understand what evidence would address such cues, we propose that auditors fail to apply this understanding because they use implemental mindsets when making decisions for themselves (i.e., deciding). However, we also propose that auditors use deliberative mindsets when advising. To test our predictions, we assign auditors to a decider or an advisor role in a realistic case that contains seeded fraud cues and asks them to consider revising last year's plan. We also manipulate whether the case prompts auditors to revise the plan unconventionally. Results indicate decider‐condition auditors use implemental mindsets: Prompted deciders follow the unconventional plan without regard to underlying fraud risk and unprompted deciders stick with the same‐as‐last‐year plan. Advisor‐condition auditors use more deliberative mindsets: In the prompt and no prompt conditions, they identify plans that are strongly linked to their own fraud risk assessments and that better align with experts' recommended plan for effectively addressing the seeded fraud cues. Supplemental analyses suggest deciding and advising auditors both follow the experts' plan when they believe in its potential effectiveness but, after controlling for the influence of perceived effectiveness, deciding auditors follow it to a greater extent simply because they believe the PCAOB wants it. By contrast, advising auditors do not exhibit signs of excessive PCAOB influence. Our findings provide evidence that seeking informal advice (or thinking like an advisor) helps auditors to effectively revise audit plans in response to identified fraud risk—it helps when a prompt is present or not, suggesting it complements rather than merely substitutes for interventions meant to improve auditors' judgment and decision making.
GCM compareR: A web application to assess differences and assist in the selection of general circulation models for climate change research
Authors: Fajardo Javier , Corcoran Derek , Roehrdanz Patrick R. , Hannah Lee , Marquet Pablo A.
Published: January 2020

Climate change research often relies on downscaled general circulation models (GCM), projections of future scenarios that are used to build ecological and evolutionary models. With more than 35 different GCMs widely available at a resolution of 10 km and finer, standardized methods to understand the differences among GCM projections in a region of interest and to choose which GCM to use for analysis are essential to maximize relevance to policy and to assure a proper treatment of uncertainty.

To help researchers and policymakers understand and select form the range of available GCM scenarios, we have developed GCM compareR, an open‐source web application written in r using shiny. GCM compareR is freely accessible with an easy interactive user interface, has preloaded climate scenario data to increase the speed of analysis and is fully documented to ensure reproducibility. Users of the application need no prior experience in coding.

GCM compareR is designed to compare GCMs and different climate change scenarios to provide full, documented exploration of the possible alternative futures from within the range of projections in CMIP5 climate models. Designed with a wide group of users in mind, including ecologists, conservationists and policymakers, the application is designed to adapt analyses to any geographic area of interest. Results are provided as figures, tables and maps that clearly communicate the differences among model projections for the region. Additionally, the tool allows for the export of a report that records the parameter choices and results of a session, along with contextual information, to make the analysis fully transparent and replicable.
On the Stickiness of Territorial Stigma: Diverging Experiences in Amsterdam’s Most Notorious Neighbourhood
Authors: Pinkster Fenne M. , Ferier Marijn S. , Hoekstra Myrte S.
Published: January 2020

In Western Europe, a select number of “ghettos” are at the forefront of public anxieties about urban inequality and failed integration. These notorious neighbourhoods at the bottom of the moral spatial order are imagined as different and disconnected from the rest of the city. This paper examines how residents in Amsterdam Bijlmer, a peripheral social housing estate long portrayed as the Dutch ghetto, experience the symbolic denigration of their neighbourhood. Interviews show that all residents are highly aware of the negative racial, cultural and material stereotypes associated with their neighbourhood. However, these negative stereotypes are not equally felt: territorial stigma “sticks” more to some residents than others and substantial inequalities are observed in who carries the burden of renegotiating blemish of place. Differential engagement with stigma depends on how residents’ identity and the materiality of their surroundings intersect with stigmatising narratives of place.
For diffident geographies and modest activisms: Questioning the ANYTHING‐BUT‐GENTLE academy
Authors: Horton John
Published: January 2020

This commentary interleaves autoethnographic reflections and qualitative data to develop two critical reflections on “gentleness” in contemporary spaces of academia and activism. First, somewhat autoethnographically, I question how normative styles of academic performance and self‐presentation often lead us to efface and devalue gentleness, and be complicit in presenting ourselves and performing research in ways that are ANYTHING‐BUT‐GENTLE. I argue that, consequently, all kinds of everyday academic awkwardnesses, worries, and anxieties have come to be positioned as non‐normative personal‐professional failings. Second, reflecting on research with young anti‐austerity activists in England, I consider the unsettling, but often characteristic, presence of modesty, awkwardness, and self‐doubt in spaces of activism. I argue that normative idealisations of “impact” within the contemporary academy can often lead us to value only those modes of social impact which are unabashedly substantial, muscular, large‐scale, self‐confident, and readily narratable as such. By contrast, I am often struck by the way that affirmative, transformative activisms are done and described in ways which are much more hesitant, self‐doubtful, or modest than this: for example, through narratives of “just getting on,” “just coping,” or “just what we do.” Through these reflections I argue that an attunement to gentleness should permit greater appreciation of awkwardness, diffidence, shyness, modesty, and self‐doubt in spaces of academia and activism. Moreover, I argue that these kinds of gentleness might form points of critique and solidarity within and against the ANYTHING‐BUT‐GENTLE academy.
Ordovician tectonic shift in the western North China Craton constrained by stratigraphic and geochronological analyses
Authors: Sun Jiaopeng , Dong Yunpeng
Published: January 2020

The western North China Craton (W‐NCC) comprises the Alxa Terrane in the west and the Ordos Block in the east; they are separated by the Helanshan Tectonic Belt (HTB). There is an extensive debate regarding the significant Ordovician tectonic setting of the W‐NCC. Most paleogeographic reconstructions emphasized the formation and rapid subsidence of an aulacogen along the HTB during the Middle–Late Ordovician, whereas paleomagnetic and geochronologic results suggested that the Alxa Terrane and the Ordos Block were independent blocks separated by the HTB. In this study, stratigraphic and geochronologic methods were used to constrain the Ordovician tectonic processes of the W‐NCC. Stratigraphic correlations show that the Early Ordovician strata comprise ~500‐m‐thick tidal flat and lagoon carbonate successions with a progressive eastward onlap, featuring a west‐deepening shallow‐water carbonate shelf. In contrast, the Late Ordovician strata are composed of ~3,000‐m‐thick abyssal turbidites in the west and ~400‐m‐thick shallow‐water carbonates in the east, defining an eastward‐tapering basin architecture. Early Ordovician detrital zircons with ages of ~2,800–1,700 Ma were derived from the Ordos Block; the Late Ordovician turbidites were sourced from the western Alxa Terrane, based on zircon ages clustered at ~1,000–900 Ma. The petrographic modal composition and zircon age distribution imply a provenance shift from a stable craton to a recycled orogen in the Middle Ordovician. These shifts define a tectonic conversion from a passive continental margin to a foreland basin at ~467 Ma, resulting in the eastward progradation of the turbidite wedge around the HTB, the eastward backstepping of the carbonate platform in the east and the eastward expansion of orogenic thrusting in the western Alxa Terrane. This tectono‐sedimentary shift coincided with the advancing subduction of the southern Paleo‐Asian Ocean beneath the Alxa Terrane, generating the western Alxa continental arc and the paired retro‐arc foredeep in the east under a compressional tectonic regime.
Deep trade agreements and vertical FDI: The devil is in the details
Authors: Osnago Alberto , Rocha Nadia , Ruta Michele
Published: January 2020

Although pre‐1990s preferential trade agreements focused mostly on tariff liberalization, recent agreements increasingly contain deep provisions in diverse areas, such as intellectual property rights, investment and standards. At the same time, there has been a remarkable increase in the internationalization of production through foreign direct investment and outsourcing. This paper studies how deep trade agreements affect the international organization of production. Using new measures of the depth and content of preferential trade agreements and of vertical foreign direct investment, the analysis finds evidence that the depth of trade agreements is correlated with vertical foreign direct investment. Furthermore, this relationship is driven by the provisions that improve the contractibility of inputs provided by suppliers, such as standards, while provisions that increase the contractibility of headquarter services, such as intellectual property rights and investment protection, are generally negatively correlated with foreign investment. This finding is consistent with the so‐called “property rights” theory of the multinational firm according to which improving the contractibility of an input reduces the importance of giving incentives through ownership.
Exercise training improves sleep quality: A randomized controlled trial
Authors: Jurado‐Fasoli Lucas , De‐la‐O Alejandro , Molina‐Hidalgo Cristina , Migueles Jairo H. , Castillo Manuel J. , Amaro‐Gahete Francisco J.
Published: January 2020

Background

Exercise holds promise as a non‐pharmacological intervention for the improvement of sleep quality. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of different training modalities on sleep quality parameters.

Material & methods

A total of 69 (52.7% women) middle‐aged sedentary adults were randomized to (a) control group, (b) physical activity recommendation from the World Health Organization, (c) high‐intensity interval training (HIIT) and (d) high‐intensity interval training group adding whole‐body electromyostimulation training (HIITEMS). Sleep quality was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) scale and accelerometers.

Results

All intervention groups showed a lower PSQI global score (all P < .022). HIIT‐EMS group improved all accelerometer parameters, with higher total sleep time and sleep efficiency, and lower wake after sleep onset (all P < .016). No differences were found between groups in any sleep quality parameter.

Conclusion

In conclusion, exercise training induced an improvement in subjective sleep quality in sedentary middleaged adults. Moreover, HIIT‐EMS training showed an improvement in objective sleep quality parameters (total sleep time, sleep efficiency and wake after sleep onset) after 12 weeks of exercise intervention. The changes observed in the HIIT‐EMS group were not statistically different to the other exercise modalities.
Informing management decisions for ecological networks, using dynamic models calibrated to noisy time‐series data
Authors: Adams Matthew P. , Sisson Scott A. , Helmstedt Kate J. , Baker Christopher M. , Holden Matthew H. , Plein Michaela , Holloway Jacinta , Mengersen Kerrie L. , McDonald‐Madden Eve
Published: January 2020

Well‐intentioned environmental management can backfire, causing unforeseen damage. To avoid this, managers and ecologists seek accurate predictions of the ecosystem‐wide impacts of interventions, given small and imprecise datasets, which is an incredibly difficult task. We generated and analysed thousands of ecosystem population time series to investigate whether fitted models can aid decision‐makers to select interventions. Using these time‐series data (sparse and noisy datasets drawn from deterministic Lotka‐Volterra systems with two to nine species, of known network structure), dynamic model forecasts of whether a species’ future population will be positively or negatively affected by rapid eradication of another species were correct > 70% of the time. Although 70% correct classifications is only slightly better than an uninformative prediction (50%), this classification accuracy can be feasibly improved by increasing monitoring accuracy and frequency. Our findings suggest that models may not need to produce well‐constrained predictions before they can inform decisions that improve environmental outcomes.