bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Gut microbiota influence B cell function in a TLR5-dependent manner
Authors: Li Sha , Walters William A. , Chassaing Benoit , Zhang Benyue , Shi Qiaojuan , Waters Jillian , Gewirtz Andrew T. , Leifer Cynthia A. , Ley Ruth E.
Published: February 2019

Toll-like receptor (TLR) 5-deficient mice display aberrantly low levels of flagellin-specific antibodies (Flic-IgA) secreted into the gut, combined with excess bacterial flagellin in the gut, and together these attributes define microbiome dysbiosis (T5-dysbiosis). How TLR5 signaling deficiency results in T5-dysbiosis is unclear. Here, we address the role of B cells in T-dysbiosis. We observed that B cells do not express TLR5, and that B cell transplantation from TLR5−/− mouse donors into B-cell deficient mice resulted in a slight reduction in Flic-IgA levels compared to B-cells from WT donors. Bone marrow transplants from WT and TLR5−/− donors into recipients of both genotypes confirmed that TLR5 signaling by non-hematopoietic cells is required for T5-dysbiosis. We observed TLR5 deficiency was associated with an expanded population of IgA+ B cells. TLR5−/− mice tended to have higher richness for the IgA gene hypervariable region (CDR3 gene) variants. Transplantation of microbiomes from TLR5−/− and WT microbiomes donors into germfree mice resulted in a higher proportion of IgA-secreting B cells, and higher overall fecal IgA and anti-Flic IgA for TLR5−/− microbiome recipients. This observation indicated that the TLR5−/− mouse microbiome elicits an anti-flagellin antibody response that requires TLR5 signaling. Together these results indicate that TLR5 signaling on epithelial cells influences B cell populations and antibody repertoire.
Validation of genome-wide polygenic risk scores for coronary artery disease in French Canadians
Authors: Wünnemann Florian , Lo Ken Sin , Langford-Avelar Alexandra , Busseuil David , Dubé Marie-Pierre , Tardif Jean-Claude , Lettre Guillaume
Published: February 2019

Coronary artery disease (CAD) represents one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Given the healthcare risks and societal impacts associated with CAD, their clinical management would benefit from improved prevention and prediction tools. Polygenic risk scores (PRS) based on an individual’s genome sequence are emerging as potentially powerful biomarkers to predict the risk to develop CAD. Two recently derived genome-wide PRS have shown high specificity and sensitivity to identify CAD cases in European-ancestry participants from the UK Biobank. However, validation of the PRS predictive power and transferability in other populations is now required to support their clinical utility. We calculated both PRS (GPSCADand metaGRSCAD) in French-Canadian individuals from three cohorts totaling 3639 prevalent CAD cases and 7382 controls, and tested their power to predict prevalent, incident and recurrent CAD. We also estimated the impact of the founder French-Canadian familial hypercholesterolemia deletion (LDLRdelta > 15kb deletion) on CAD risk in one of these cohorts and used this estimate to calibrate the impact of the PRS. Our results confirm the ability of both PRS to predict prevalent CAD comparable to the original reports (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.72-0.84). Furthermore, the PRS identified about 6-7% of individuals at CAD risk similar to carriers of theLDLRdelta > 15kb mutation, consistent with previous estimates. However, the PRS did not perform as well in predicting incident (AUC= 0.56 - 0.60) or recurrent (AUC= 0.56 - 0.60) CAD. This result suggests that additional work is warranted to better understand how ascertainment biases and study design impact PRS for CAD. Collectively, our results confirm that novel, genome-wide PRS are able to predict CAD in French-Canadians; with further improvements, this is likely to pave the way towards more targeted strategies to predict and prevent CAD-related adverse events.
Distinct metabolic states of a cell guide alternate fates of mutational buffering through altered proteostasis
Authors: Verma Kanika , Saxena Kanika , Donaka Rajashekar , Chaphalkar Aseem , Rai Manish Kumar , Shukla Anurag , Zaidi Zainab , Dandage Rohan , Shanmugam Dhanasekaran , Chakraborty Kausik
Published: February 2019

Changes in metabolism can alter the cellular milieu; can this also change intracellular proteostasis? Since proteostasis can modulate mutational buffering, if change in metabolism has the ability to change proteostasis, arguably, it should also alter mutational buffering. Building on this, we find that altered cellular metabolic states in E. coli buffer distinct mutations. Buffered-mutants had folding problems in vivo and were differently chaperoned in different metabolic states. Notably, this assistance was dependent upon the metabolites and not on the increase in canonical chaperone machineries. Additionally, we were able to reconstitute the folding assistance afforded by metabolites in vitro and propose that changes in metabolite concentrations have the potential to alter proteostasis. Collectively, we unravel that the metabolite pools are bona fide members of proteostasis and aid in mutational buffering. Given the plasticity in cellular metabolism, we posit that metabolic alterations may play an important role in the positive or negative regulation of proteostasis.
Presence ofLegionellaspp. in cooling towers: the role of microbial diversity,Pseudomonas, and continuous chlorine application
Authors: Paranjape Kiran , Bédard Émilie , Whyte Lyle G. , Ronholm Jennifer , Prévost Michèle , Faucher Sébastien P.
Published: February 2019

Legionnaire’s Disease (LD) is a severe pneumonia caused byLegionella pneumophila. Cooling towers are the main source ofL. pneumophiladuring large outbreaks. Colonization, survival, and proliferation ofL. pneumophilain cooling towers are necessary for outbreaks to occur. These steps are affected by chemical and physical parameters of the cooling tower environment. We hypothesize that the bacterial community residing in the cooling tower could also affect the presence ofL. pneumophila. A16S rRNAtargeted amplicon sequencing approach was used to study the bacterial community of cooling towers and its relationship with theLegionella spp.andL. pneumophilacommunities. The results indicated that the water source shaped the bacterial community of cooling towers. Several taxa were enriched and positively correlated withLegionella spp.andL. pneumophila. In contrast,Pseudomonasshowed a strong negative correlation withLegionella spp.and several other genera. Most importantly, continuous chlorine application reduced microbial diversity and promoted the presence ofPseudomonascreating a non-permissive environment forLegionella spp. This suggests that disinfection strategies as well as the resident microbial population influences the ability ofLegionella spp.to colonize cooling towers.
Identification of Complex Multidimensional Patterns in Microbial Communities
Authors: George Golovko , Kamil Khanipov , Levent Albayrak , Yuriy Fofanov
Published: February 2019

Motivation

Identification of complex relationships within members of microbial communities is key to understand and guide microbial transplantation and provide personalized anti-microbial and probiotic treatments. Since members of a given microbial community can be simultaneously involved in multiple relations that altogether will determine their abundance, not all significant relations between organisms are expected to be manifested as visually uninterrupted patterns and be detected using traditional correlation nor mutual information coefficient based approaches.

Results

This manuscript proposes a pattern specific way to quantify the strength and estimate the statistical significance of two-dimensional co-presence, co-exclusion, and one-way relations patterns between abundance profiles of two organisms which can be extended to three or more dimensional patterns. Presented approach can also be extended by including a variety of physical (pH, temperature, oxygen concentration) and biochemical (antimicrobial susceptibility, nutrient and metabolite concentration) variables into the search for multidimensional patterns. The presented approach has been tested using 2,380 microbiome samples from the Human Microbiome Project resulting in body-site specific networks of statistically significant 2D patterns. We also were able to demonstrate the presence of several 3D patterns in the Human Microbiome Project data.

Availability

C++ source code for two and three-dimensional patterns, as well as executable files for the Pickle pipeline, are in the attached supplementary materials.

Contact

gegolovk@utmb.edu
A neurodevelopmental origin of behavioral individuality
Authors: Linneweber Gerit Arne , Andriatsilavo Maheva , Dutta Suchetana , Hellbruegge Liz , Liu Guangda , Ejsmont Radoslaw K. , Fenk Lisa M. , Straw Andrew D. , Wernet Mathias , Hiesinger Peter Robin , Hassan Bassem A.
Published: February 2019

The genome versus experience, or “Nature versus Nurture”, debate has dominated our understanding of individual behavioral variation. A third factor, namely variation in complex behavior potentially due to non-heritable “developmental noise” in brain development, has been largely ignored. Using the Drosophila vinegar fly we demonstrate a causal link between variation in brain wiring due to developmental noise, and behavioral individuality. A population of visual system neurons called DCNs shows non-heritable, inter-individual variation in right/left wiring asymmetry, and control object orientation in freely walking flies. We show that DCN wiring asymmetry predicts an individual’s object responses: the greater the asymmetry, the better the individual orients. Silencing DCNs abolishes correlations between anatomy and behavior, while inducing visual asymmetry via monocular deprivation “rescues” object orientation in DCN-symmetric individuals.

One Sentence Summary

Non-heritable individual variation in neural circuit development underlies individual variability in behavior.
DLITE: Dynamic Local Intercellular Tension Estimation
Authors: Vasan R. , Maleckar M.M. , Williams C.D. , Rangamani P.
Published: February 2019

The shape of cell-cell interfaces and the forces resulting from actomyosin interactions, mem-brane tension, or cell-cell adhesion are closely coupled. For example, the tight junction protein, ZO-1, forms a link between the force-bearing actin cortex and the rest of the tight junction protein (TJP) complex, regulating epithelial cell differentiation and the flux of solutes across epithelia. Here we introduce a method for Dynamic Local Intercellular Tension Estimation (DLITE) to computationally infer the evolution of cell-cell forces from a mechanical model of collective cell behaviour. This builds upon prior work in the field (CellFIT, Brodland et al., PloS one 9.6 (2014): e99116). We validate our estimated forces against those predicted by Surface Evolver simulations. Inferred tensions of a cell colony rearranging over time correlate better with the ground truth for our method (DLITE) than for prior methods intended for single time-points. DLITE is robust to both skeletonization errors and topological changes. Finally, we used DLITE in WTC-11 human induced pluripotent stem (hIPS) cells endogenously expressing ZO-1 GFP to find that major topo-logical changes in cell connectivity, e.g. mitosis, can result in an increase in tension. This suggests a correlation between the dynamics of cell-cell forces and colony rearrangement.
Different subtypes of influenza A viruses target different human proteins and pathways leading to different pathogenic phenotypes
Authors: Wang Yujie , Song Ting , Li Kaiwu , Jin Yuan , Yue Junjie , Ren Hongguang , Liang Long
Published: February 2019

Different subtypes of Influenza A viruses cause different pathogenic phenotypes after infecting human bodies. Direct binary interactions between viral proteins and human proteins provide an important background for influenza viruses to cause complex pathologies of hosts. Here, we demonstrated the different impacts on the TNF-α-induced NF-κB activation of H1N1 and H5N1 virus proteins. By further examining the virus-host protein-protein interactions (PPI), we found that the same segment protein of the H1N1 and H5N1 viruses target on different host proteins. We then performed a yeast two-hybrid analysis of a highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza virus and human proteins. Influenza-host protein-protein interaction networks of three strains of influenza A viruses (including two other reported influenza-host PPI networks) were systematically compared and mapped on the network level and the pathway level. The results show subtype-specific characters of the influenza-host protein interactome, which may response for the specific pathogenic mechanisms of different subtypes of influenza viruses.

Importance

Influenza A virus (IAV) can cause contagious respiratory illness, namely influenza (flu). The symptoms of infections from different subtypes of IAVs vary from mild to severe illness. The mechanism of these different pathogenic phenotypes remains poorly understood. Our results show that the same NA and NP segments from H1N1 and H5N1 virus cause different impacts on the TNF-α-induced NF-κB pathway. Furthermore, we generated a yeast two-hybrid protein-protein interaction (PPI) network between H5N1 and human proteins. By systematically comparing the influenza-host PPI networks of three strains of IAVs, we show that different subtypes of IAVs target different human proteins and pathways, which may have led to different pathogenic phenotypes.
Detecting anomalies in RNA-seq quantification
Authors: Ma Cong , Kingsford Carl
Published: February 2019

Algorithms to infer isoform expression abundance from RNA-seq have been greatly improved in accuracy during the past ten years. However, due to incomplete reference transcriptomes, mapping errors, incomplete sequencing bias models, or mistakes made by the algorithm, the quantification model sometimes could not explain all aspects of the input read data, and misquantification can occur. Here, we develop a computational method to detect instances where a quantification model could not thoroughly explain the input. Specifically, our approach identifies transcripts where the read coverage has significant deviations from the expectation. We call these transcripts “expression anomalies”, and they represent instances where the quantification estimates may be in doubt. We further develop a method to attribute the cause of anomalies to either the incompleteness of the reference transcriptome or the algorithmic mistakes, and we show that our method precisely detects misquantifications with both causes. By correcting the misquantifications that are labeled as algorithmic mistakes, the number of false predictions of differentially expressed transcripts can be reduced. Applying anomaly detection to 30 GEUVADIS and 16 Human Body Map samples, we detect 103 genes with potential unannotated isoforms. These genes tend to be longer than average, and contain a very long exon near 3′ end that the unannotated isoform excludes. Anomaly detection is a new approach for investigating the expression quantification problem that may find wider use in other areas of genomics.
Context-dependent selection as the keystone in somatic evolution of cancer
Authors: Watve Milind , Vibishan B
Published: February 2019

Somatic evolution of cancer involves a series of mutations, and attendant changes, in one or more clones of cells. A "bad luck" type model assumes chance accumulation of mutations. The clonal expansion model assumes, on the other hand, that any mutation leading to partial loss of regulation of cell proliferation will give a selective advantage to the mutant. However, a number of experiments show that an intermediate pre-cancer mutant has only a conditional selective advantage. Given that tissue microenvironmental conditions differ across individual organisms, this selective advantage to a mutant could be widely distributed over the population of organisms. We evaluate three models, namely "bad luck", context-independent, and -dependent selection, in a comparative framework, on their ability to predict patterns in total incidence, age-specific incidence, and their ability to explain Peto's paradox. Results show that context dependence is necessary and sufficient to explain observed epidemiological patterns, and that cancer incidence is largely selection-limited, rather than mutation-limited. A wide range of physiological, genetic and behavioural factors influence the tissue micro-environment, and could therefore be the source of this context dependence in somatic evolution of cancer. The identification and targeting of these micro-environmental factors that influence the dynamics of selection offer new possibilities for cancer prevention.
Ted Janssen and aperiodic crystals
Authors: de Boissieu Marc
Published: February 2019

This article reviews some of Ted Janssen's (1936–2017) major contributions to the field of aperiodic crystals. Aperiodic crystals are long-range ordered structures without 3D lattice translations and encompass incommensurately modulated phases, incommensurate composites and quasicrystals. Together with Pim de Wolff and Aloysio Janner, Ted Janssen invented the very elegant theory of superspace crystallography that, by adding a supplementary dimension to the usual 3D space, allows for a deeper understanding of the atomic structure of aperiodic crystals. He also made important contributions to the understanding of the stability and dynamics of aperiodic crystals, exploring their fascinating physical properties. He constantly interacted and collaborated with experimentalists, always ready to share and explain his detailed understanding of aperiodic crystals.
Resolving indexing ambiguities in X-ray free-electron laser diffraction patterns
Authors: Uervirojnangkoorn Monarin , Lyubimov Artem Y. , Zhou Qiangjun , Weis William I. , Brunger Axel T.
Published: February 2019

Processing X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) diffraction images poses challenges, as an XFEL pulse is powerful enough to destroy or damage the diffracting volume and thereby yields only one diffraction image per volume. Moreover, the crystal is stationary during the femtosecond pulse, so reflections are generally only partially recorded. Therefore, each XFEL diffraction image must be scaled individually and, ideally, corrected for partiality prior to merging. An additional complication may arise owing to indexing ambiguities when the symmetry of the Bravais lattice is higher than that of the space group, or when the unit-cell dimensions are similar to each other. Here, an automated method is presented that diagnoses these indexing ambiguities based on the Brehm–Diederichs algorithm [Brehm & Diederichs (2014), Acta Cryst. D70, 101–109] and produces a consistent indexing choice for the large majority of diffraction images. This method was applied to an XFEL diffraction data set measured from crystals of the neuronal SNARE–complexin-1–synaptotagmin-1 complex. After correcting the indexing ambiguities, substantial improvements were observed in the merging statistics and the atomic model refinement R values. This method should be a useful addition to the arsenal of tools for the processing of XFEL diffraction data sets.
Oil spill remote monitoring by using remotely piloted aircraft
Authors: Urbahs Aleksandrs , Zavtkevics Vladislavs
Published: February 2019

Purpose

This paper aims to analyze the application of remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) for remote oil spill sensing.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is an analysis of RPA strong points.

Findings

To increase the accuracy and eliminate potentially false contamination detection, which can be caused by external factors, an oil thickness measurement algorithm is used with the help of the multispectral imaging that provides high accuracy and is versatile for any areas of water and various meteorological and atmospheric conditions.

Research limitations/implications

SWOT analysis of implementation of RPA for remote sensing of oil spills.

Practical implications

The use of RPA will improve the remote sensing of oil spills.

Social implications

The concept of oil spills monitoring needs to be developed for quality data collection, oil pollution control and emergency response.

Originality/value

The research covers the development of a method and design of a device intended for taking samples and determining the presence of oil contamination in an aquatorium area; the procedure includes taking a sample from the water surface, preparing it for transportation and delivering the sample to a designated location by using the RPA. The objective is to carry out the analysis of remote oil spill sensing using RPA. The RPA provides a reliable sensing of oil pollution with significant advantages over other existing methods. The objective is to analyze the use of RPA employing all of their strong points. In this paper, technical aspects of sensors are analyzed, as well as their advantages and limitations.
Real earnings management in Thailand: CEO duality and serviced early years
Authors: Nuanpradit Sirada
Published: February 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the individual and interaction effects of chief executive officers (CEO)-chairman leadership structure (CEO duality) and CEO-serviced early years (the first three years in office) on real earnings management (REM) through sales activities of listed firms in the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET).

Design/methodology/approach

The longitudinal data on CEO and chairman names of 3,825 firm-year observations were manually gleaned from the SET market analysis and reporting tool and the annual reports from 2001 to 2015. Multiple regressions were utilized to analyze the effects.

Findings

The findings show a positive relationship between CEO duality and sales-driven REM. However, the CEO-serviced early years have no association with sales-driven REM. The CEO duality/serviced early year interaction effect is positively correlated to sales manipulation. In addition, firms with the CEO duality engage in upward or downward sales-driven REM, while firms with newly appointed CEO adopt only the upward sales-driven REM. In firms which their newly appointed CEO concurrently serves as chairman, either upward or downward sales-driven REM strategy is introduced.

Practical implications

The findings provide some grounds for capital market and regulators to exercise caution when it comes to firms with the newly appointed CEO and/or the CEO duality, given a high tendency to manipulate sales revenues.

Originality/value

This study is the first to investigate the relationship between the CEO duality/serviced early years on sales-driven REM. The findings are expected to complement existing publications on REM.
Applying big data analytics to support Kansei engineering for hotel service development
Authors: Chen Mu-Chen , Hsiao Yu-Hsiang , Chang Kuo-Chien , Lin Ming-Ke
Published: February 2019

Purpose

Leisure and tourism activities have proliferated and become important parts of modern life, and the hotel industry plays a necessary role in the supply for and demand from consumers. The purpose of this paper is to develop guidelines for hotel service development by applying a service development approach integrating Kansei engineering and text mining.

Design/methodology/approach

The online reviews represent the voice of customers regarding the products and services. Consumers’ online comments might become a key factor for consumers choosing hotels when planning their tourism itinerary. With the framework of Kansei engineering, this paper adopts text mining to extract the sets of Kansei words and hotel service characteristics from the online contents as well as the relationships among Kansei words, service characteristics and these two sets. The relationships are generated by using link analysis, and then the guidelines for hotel service development are proposed based on the obtained relationships.

Findings

The results of the present research can provide the hotel industry a comprehensive understanding of hotels’ customers opinions, and can offer specific advice on how to differentiate one’s products and services from competitors’ in order to improve customer satisfaction and increase hotels’ performance in the end. Finally, this study finds out the service development guidelines to meet customers’ requirements which can provide suggestions for hotel managers. The implications both for academic and industry are also drawn based on the obtained results.

Originality/value

Now, in the internet era, consumers can comment on their hotel living experience directly through the internet. The large amount of user-generated content (UGC) provided by consumers also provides chances for the hospitality industry to understand consumers’ opinions through online review mining. The UGC with consumers’ opinions to hotel services can be continuously collected and analyzed by hoteliers. Therefore, this paper demonstrates how to apply the hybrid approach integrating Kansei engineering and online review mining to hotel service development.
Quid pro quo
Authors: Roosens Bram , Dens Nathalie , Lievens Annouk
Published: February 2019

Purpose

This paper aims to assess the effects of explicit partner brand mentions (as opposed to a mere partnership mention) in communications by brand allies on consumers’ purchase intention and willingness to pay for an innovation, as mediated by the perceived relational embeddedness of the allies and their respective perceived corporate credibility. In Study 1, the authors investigate the effects of (reciprocal) explicit brand mentions by both allies (as opposed to by a single ally) and further test whether explicit brand mentions moderate spillover effects from the ally. In Study 2, the authors investigate the effect of reciprocity of explicit brand mentions and whether this is moderated by a company’s experience.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conduct two online experiments. Study 1 (N = 216) is a four-level between-subjects experiment (single communication by Partner A with explicit brand mention, single communication by Partner B with explicit brand mention, explicit brand mentions by both allies and mere partnership mention by both allies) where participants judge a social alliance related to a new tablet. Study 2 (N = 376) builds upon these findings in a 4 (explicit brand mentions by both allies; mere partnership mention by both allies; explicit brand mention by Partner A, mere partnership mention by Partner B; explicit brand mention by partner B, mere partnership mention by Partner A) × 2 (Partner A experience: established vs startup) between-subjects experimental design for a co-created battery.

Findings

Spillover effects from one ally to the other are stronger with explicit brand mentions than with a mere partnership mention. There is no added value of two allies communicating over one, provided that both partners explicitly mention their partner brand. However, when allies do communicate separately, it is crucial that an explicit brand mention is reciprocated. This effect is explained by an increase in the perceived relational embeddedness of the partners, which in turn positively influences their corporate credibility. This effect does not differ depending on a company’s experience.

Originality/value

This research is one of the first to study effects of how a brand alliance is communicated and extends previous studies on the effects of communication about brand and co-creation alliances by demonstrating that communications moderate spillover effects, that brand mention reciprocity is crucial, and by introducing the concept of perceived relational embeddedness.
Effects of health insurance on labour supply: a systematic review
Authors: Le Nga , Groot Wim , Tomini Sonila M. , Tomini Florian
Published: February 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of empirical evidence on the labour market effects of health insurance from the supply side.

Design/methodology/approach

The study covers the largest peer-reviewed and working paper databases for labour economics and health studies. These include Web of Science, Google Scholar, Pubmed and the most popular economics working paper sources such as NBER, ECONSTOR, IDEAS, IZA, SSRN, World Bank Working Paper Series. The authors follow the PRISMA 2009 protocol for systematic reviews.

Findings

The collection includes 63 studies. The outcomes of interest are the number of hours worked, the probability of employment, self-employment and the level of economic formalisation. The authors find that the current literature is vastly concentrated on the USA. Spousal coverage in the USA is associated with reduced labour supply of secondary earners. The effect of Medicaid in the USA on the labour supply of its recipients is ambiguous. The employment-coverage link is an important determinant of the labour supply of people with health problems and self-employment decisions. Universal coverage may create either an incentive or a disincentive to work depending on the design of the system. Finally, evidence on the relationship between health insurance and the level of economic formalisation in developing countries is fragmented and limited.

Practical implications

This study reviews the existing literature on the labour market effects of health insurance from the supply side. The authors find a large knowledge gap in emerging economies where health coverage is expanding. The authors also highlight important literature gaps that need to be filled in different themes of the topic.

Originality/value

This is the first systematic review on the topic which is becoming increasingly relevant for policy makers in developing countries where health coverage is expanding.
Does on-the-job training help graduates find a job? Evidence from an Italian region
Authors: Ghirelli Corinna , Havari Enkelejda , Santangelo Giulia , Scettri Marta
Published: February 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a recent training programme for graduates, implemented in Italy and entitled Work Experience Laureati and Laureate, i.e. Work Experience for Graduates. The aim of the programme was to increase the career prospects of unemployed graduates in the region of Umbria.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors rely on administrative data and matching methods to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention in terms of employability of participants.

Findings

The results show that participants are more likely to be employed and to sign an apprenticeship contract within the region boundaries. The authors also find substantial differences in employability and type of contract by gender, with men having a higher probability of finding a job (permanent contract and apprenticeship). The authors show that this may be explained by the different choices in terms of field of study, with males being more prone to enrol in scientific areas and females in the humanities.

Research limitations/implications

It is an intervention implemented in one Italian region.

Originality/value

This is one of the few studies that analyses the effectiveness of active labour market policies targeting unemployed graduates, especially in the Italian context. The authors rely on different administrative data sources that allow them to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme.
Creating high performance partnerships in Asia: the case of NEH the Philippines
Authors: de Waal André , de Haas Jeroen
Published: February 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a previously developed framework for creating so-called high performance partnerships (HPPs), which yields a competitive advantage for all firms in the partnership, in the Asian context.

Design/methodology/approach

The HPP framework is evaluated for a Philippine organization that produces, markets and ships bananas in Asia. The evaluation entailed conducting a questionnaire, statistically redeveloping the framework and organizing several feedback workshops with the partner firms, the latter aiming to discuss and agree to improvements that each partner could implement to achieve high performance in the value chain.

Findings

The results showed that the evaluated HPP framework can be used to score the quality of each partner in the chain and to yield targeted recommendations to improve the performance of each partner firm. The subsequent application of the recommendations derived from applying the HPP framework created substantial profits for the partner firms.

Originality/value

Originally developed in a western context and applied to a value chain of European organizations, the HPP framework was successfully applied for the first time in the Asian context, to evaluate the performance of an Asian value chain and identify areas for improvement of the Asian partner firms. As such, the results contribute both to the HPP literature, filling a gap therein, and to practice, as Asian organizations can use with confidence a framework which has been validated in their context.
Estimation of reliability of multicomponent stress-strength of a bathtub shape or increasing failure rate function
Authors: Dey Sanku , Moala Fernando Antonio
Published: February 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to deal with the Bayesian and non-Bayesian estimation methods of multicomponent stress-strength reliability by assuming the Chen distribution.

Design/methodology/approach

The reliability of a multicomponent stress-strength system is obtained by the maximum likelihood (MLE) and Bayesian methods and the results are compared by using MCMC technique for both small and large samples.

Findings

The simulation study shows that Bayes estimates based onγprior with absence of prior information performs little better than the MLE with regard to both biases and mean squared errors. The Bayes credible intervals for reliability are also shorter length with competitive coverage percentages than the condence intervals. Further, the coverage probability is quite close to the nominal value in all sets of parameters when both sample sizesnandmincreases.

Originality/value

The lifetime distributions used in reliability analysis as exponential,γ, lognormal and Weibull only exhibit monotonically increasing, decreasing or constant hazard rates. However, in many applications in reliability and survival analysis, the most realistic hazard rate is bathtub-shaped found in the Chen distribution. Therefore, the authors have studied the multicomponent stress-strength reliability under the Chen distribution by comparing the MLE and Bayes estimators.
The role of virtual try-on technology in online purchase decision from consumers’ aspect
Authors: Zhang Tingting , Wang William Yu Chung , Cao Ling , Wang Yan
Published: February 2019

Purpose

Online shopping has continued to grow in popularity, and the advance of internet technology has enhanced customers’ experiences. One technology online retailers have been using to increase sales is virtual try-on (VTO). The purpose of this paper is to investigate how such technology affects online consumers’ purchase decision process towards purchase intention, especially from an integration of utilitarian, hedonic and risk perspectives, by using advanced partial least square (PLS) approaches.

Design/methodology/approach

This study applied a web-based survey approach for data collection from online apparel retailing websites. The survey instrument was developed by adapting previously validated measurement items. The valid data collected were analysed using PLS with multi-group analyses. Advanced PLS techniques such as examination of discriminant validity using heterotrait-monotrait ratio, tests of out-of-sample prediction performance, and measurement invariance of composite models were applied.

Findings

The results of examining the proposed model reveal that customers’ attitude towards VTO technology can affect their intention to purchase a garment online, which is affected by perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment and perceived privacy risk. Perceived ease of use is found to affect perceived usefulness and perceived helpfulness. The results also show no significant differences among age groups and genders in terms of the role of VTO technology in the full decision process towards online purchase intention.

Originality/value

This study enhances the understanding of the roles that VTO technology plays in consumers’ online purchase intention by providing an integrative view of its utilitarian value, hedonic value and risk. This study demonstrates the feasibility of applying advanced PLS techniques to investigate online consumer behaviour, particularly in the field of VTO application in online retailing. Implications for online retailers and designers of VTO technology are also derived from the findings.
Revenue diversification in public higher learning institutions: an exploratory Malaysian study
Authors: Nik Ahmad Nik Nazli , Siraj Siti Alawiah , Ismail Suhaiza
Published: February 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent of revenue diversification of selected Malaysian public higher learning institutions (HLIs) and the perceptions of senior officers of Malaysian public HLIs on matters related to revenue diversification.

Design/methodology/approach

The study analyses data from the HLIs’ financial statements to compute the Hirschman-Herfindahl Index (HHI) for revenue diversification and a perception survey with senior officers of the Malaysian public HLIs.

Findings

The results suggest that while a majority of the Malaysian public HLIs were still dependent largely on government funding, the more established and larger HLIs had a slightly more diversified revenue structure. The survey suggested that overall the senior officers were receptive to the need for revenue diversification.

Research limitations/implications

The paper is largely based on a perception survey. Future work should utilise in-depth interviews and/or focus groups and a more in-depth analysis of financial statement data to provide richer data.

Practical implications

The study’s findings provide useful baseline data upon which further work may be built, particularly in the less explored developing country context. They will also prove useful to the administrators of public HLIs in other parts of the world facing a similar financial austerity situation.

Originality/value

The present study examines both the extent of revenue diversification of HLIs as well as senior HLI officers’ perceptions on revenue diversification strategies. Most prior studies on revenue diversification have examined non-profit organisations, not HLIs and most were either only perception-based studies or only looked at the extent of revenue diversification using the HHI.
Product knowledge and information processing of organic foods
Authors: Stanton Julie V. , Cook Laurel Aynne
Published: February 2019

Purpose

This paper aims to examine how product knowledge influences consumers to consider available information before choosing between organic and non-organic options. As “certified organic” is based on a complex standard in the USA, many consumers have only partial understanding of the term. This research shows how that knowledge influences consumer evaluation of the options presented in the market.

Design/methodology/approach

A two-study experimental survey that offers respondents a choice between two canned soups, one organic and one not, along with front- and back-of-label information which they can decide to use is utilized. The two studies differ in inclusion of national brand.

Findings

Consumer behavior with respect to information significantly affects rationale for product choice, and higher levels of knowledge are associated with choice rationale. Objective and subjective knowledge influence information processing differently. Inaccurate knowledge displayed by consumers influences their information processing behavior.

Research limitations/implications

While the survey stimuli are a realistic representation of two products, the online survey abstracts from in-store distractors that might influence behavior. The product chosen, while familiar and commonly consumed, is a low-involvement product which may reduce consumer effort.

Practical/implications

Marketers of organic foods must understand the level of knowledge held by consumers, as well as the information that most influences their choices if the industry is to grow further.

Originality/value

This study contrasts subjective and objective knowledge about organic foods and calculates the degree to which consumers under- versus over-estimate “organic” in their ignorance. As such, the research offers insight into a well-established label claim that has yet to achieve significant market share.
How vendor capabilities impact IT outsourcing performance
Authors: Wang Meng-Meng , Wang Jian-Jun
Published: February 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the underlying mechanisms through which integration capability and learning capability influence IT outsourcing performance from vendor’s perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper develops a moderated mediation model to explain the underlying influence processes of integration capability and learning capability on vendor’s performance. A sample of 237 vendor firms was obtained from China through two separated surveys. The hypotheses were tested with the partial least squares method and bias-corrected bootstrapping method.

Findings

The empirical results indicate that external integration capability (EIC) mediates the effect of internal integration capability (IIC) on vendor outsourcing performance, and the relationship between EIC and vendor performance is positively moderated by learning capability, while learning capability has a negative moderating effect on the link between IIC and vendor performance. Further, the conditional indirect effect is suggested. The indirect effect of IIC on vendor performance through EIC becomes non-significant when learning capability is low.

Originality/value

This study highlights the counterintuitive notion that learning capability may not always have uniformly positive effects and figure out the mechanism through which integration capability and learning capability can effectively improve IT outsourcing performance.
Sensemaking through a storytelling lens
Authors: Heath Michele , Porter Tracy
Published: February 2019

Purpose

Drawing from the extant literature on sensemaking theory, the purpose of this paper is to understand how physicians view health information exchange (HIE) implementation and how their stories frame the situation.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper utilizes content analysis with sensemaking theory as a theoretical lens to analyze physicians’ interviews.

Findings

The stories within this study draw attention to how sensemaking might impact the HIE implementation process. The findings demonstrated four well-defined manifest themes specific to sensemaking: bracketing, enactment, social and identity construction. There were sub-themes that cut across major themes: financial implications, practice changes and impact on professional reputation. The data demonstrated that each participant singled out items or events specific to the HIE change process in order to make sense of the change as an entirety.

Originality/value

No other study has applied sensemaking in an effort to gain insight into the ways physicians view the HIE process. Therefore, this study offers a unique perspective which might provide a framework through which to understand the possible barriers to successful implementation of HIE from a physician.
A knowledge-based system for overall supply chain performance evaluation: a multi-criteria decision making approach
Authors: Khan Sharfuddin Ahmed , Chaabane Amin , Dweiri Fikri
Published: February 2019

Purpose

Existing supply chain (SC) performance models are not able to cope with the potential of intensive SC digitalisation and establish a relationship between decisions and decision criteria. The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated knowledge-based system (KBS) that creates a link between decisions and decision criteria (attributes) and evaluates the overall SC performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed KBS is grounded on the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (fuzzy AHP), which establishes a relationship between short-term and long-term decisions and SC performance criteria (short-term and long-term) for accurate and integrated Overall SC performance evaluation.

Findings

The proposed KBS evaluates the overall SC performance, establishes a relationship between decisions (long-term and short-term) and decision criteria of SC functions and provides decision makers with a view of the impact of their short-term or long-term decisions on overall SC performance. The proposed system was implemented in a case company where the authors were able to develop a SC performance monitoring dashboard for the company’s top managers and operational managers.

Practical implications

The proposed KBS assists organisations and decision makers in evaluating their overall SC performance and helps in identifying underperforming SC functions and their associated criteria. It may also be considered as a tool for benchmarking SC performance against competitors. It can efficiently point to improvement directions and help decision makers improve overall SC performance.

Originality/value

The proposed KBS provides a holistic and integrated approach, establishes a relationship between decisions and decision criteria and evaluates overall SC performance, which is one of the main limitations in existing supply chain performance measurement systems.