bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Thermo-structural analysis of a honeycomb-type volumetric absorber for concentrated solar power applications
Authors: Behzad Masoud , Herrmann Benjamin , Calderón-Muñoz Williams R. , Cardemil José M. , Barraza Rodrigo
Published: June 2021

Purpose

Volumetric air receivers experience high thermal stress as a consequence of the intense radiation flux they are exposed to when used for heat and/or power generation. This study aims to propose a proper design that is required for the absorber and its holder to ensure efficient heat transfer between the fluid and solid phases and to avoid system failure due to thermal stress.

Design/methodology/approach

The design and modeling processes are applied to both the absorber and its holder. A multi-channel explicit geometry design and a discrete model is applied to the absorber to investigate the conjugate heat transfer and thermo-mechanical stress levels present in the steady-state condition. The discrete model is used to calibrate the initial state of the continuum model that is then used to investigate the transient operating states representing cloud-passing events.

Findings

The steady-state results constitute promising findings for operating the system at the desired airflow temperature of 700°C. In addition, we identified regions with high temperatures and high-stress values. Furthermore, the transient state model is capable of capturing the heat transfer and fluid dynamics phenomena, allowing the boundaries to be checked under normal operating conditions.

Originality/value

Thermal stress analysis of the absorber and the steady/transient-state thermal analysis of the absorber/holder were conducted. Steady-state heat transfer in the explicit model was used to calibrate the initial steady-state of the continuum model.
Analyzing barriers for the adoption of circular economy in the manufacturing sector
Authors: Badhotiya Gaurav Kumar , Avikal Shwetank , Soni Gunjan , Sengar Neeraj
Published: June 2021

Purpose

The operational activities of manufacturing organizations are continuously degrading the environment. Circular economy adoption can help industries optimize their resources along with minimal waste generation. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the barriers that hinder the adoption of circular economy (CE) in the manufacturing sector.

Design/methodology/approach

The barriers are extracted from a critical review of the literature and listed into three categories as social, economic and environmental. The barriers in each category are then analyzed using the fuzzy-based analytic hierarchy process method. The approach is capable to consider the fuzziness in the preference of barriers and determine their priority.

Findings

The pairwise comparison and weight of all the main and sub-criteria are computed, which helps in deciding the ranking of barriers. The results show that social criteria are having the highest importance followed by economic and environmental criteria. Among all the sub-criteria, low demand and acceptance of remanufactured products is at the highest level followed by lack of government support and legislation barrier.

Originality/value

The outcome of this study would be helpful for the decision makers and business managers in the manufacturing sector to focus on the barriers in each category and accordingly formulate strategies for CE adoption.
Linking responsible leadership with financial and environmental performance: determining mediation and moderation
Authors: Ur Rehman Zia , Shafique Imran , Khawaja Kausar Fiaz , Saeed Munazza , Kalyar Masood Nawaz
Published: June 2021

Purpose

Drawing upon the institutional theory, this study examines the influence of responsible leadership on firm performance. Furthermore, this research investigates environmental management practices (EnvMP) as an underlying mechanism and institutional pressures as boundary condition between responsible leadership and firm performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Time-lagged data were collected using survey-questionnaire from 385 mid-level employees of construction industry in Pakistan. Partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the data.

Findings

Results demonstrate that responsible leadership impacts firm performance (financial and nonfinancial) directly and through EnvMP. Furthermore, institutional pressure moderates the link between responsible leadership and EnvMP. However, moderated mediation effect of intuitional pressures was found insignificant.

Practical implications

This study suggest that EnvMP is a key process through which responsible leadership influences firms' financial and nonfinancial performance and shed lights as to when responsible leaders matter most in terms of firm performance through low or high institutional pressures.

Originality/value

This paper is an early attempt which contributes to the body of literature on responsible leadership by investigating mechanisms (how) and boundary condition (when) through which responsible leadership influences firms' financial and environmental performance.
Does IPSAS adoption reduce corruption’s level? New evidence from ODA beneficiary countries
Authors: Hamed-Sidhom Mounira , Hkiri Yosra , Boussaidi Ahmed
Published: June 2021

Purpose

The accounting literature suggests that the use of accounting standards with greater quality promotes the financial reporting quality and enhances accountability. This study aims to investigate the effect of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) adoption, by official development assistance (ODA) beneficiary countries, on the reported level of their perceived corruption.

Design/methodology/approach

We investigate a sample of ODA beneficiary countries (168 country-year observations) facing rising levels of corruption. We apply a panel regression analysis for these countries during the period from 2015 to 2018.

Findings

The findings suggest that the IPSAS’ adoption can significantly influence the level of perceived corruption and implement important evidence about promoting transparency factor for underdeveloped countries.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the accounting literature by examining the theoretical and empirical insights about the impact of the of IPSAS’ adoption on the level of corruption, which can be considered as a new area of accounting literature and a useful signal for stakeholders in countries seeking adequate solutions to combat and fight corruption activities.
Aggregate congressional trading and stock market returns
Authors: Karadas Serkan , Schlosky Minh Tam Tammy , Hall Joshua C.
Published: June 2021

Purpose

What information do members of Congress (politicians) use when they trade stocks? The purpose of this paper is to attempt to answer this question by investigating the relationship between an aggregate measure of trading by members of Congress (aggregate congressional trading) and future stock market returns.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors follow the empirical framework used in academic work on corporate insiders. In particular, they aggregate 61,998 common stock transactions by politicians over the 2004–2010 period and estimate time series regressions at a monthly frequency with heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation robust t-statistics.

Findings

The authors find that aggregate congressional trading predicts future stock market returns, suggesting that politicians use economy-wide (i.e. macroeconomic) information in their stock trades. The authors also present evidence that aggregate congressional trading is related to the growth rate of industrial production, suggesting that industrial production serves as a potential channel through which aggregate congressional trading predicts future stock market returns.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to document a relationship between aggregate congressional trading and stock market returns. The media and scholarly attention on politicians’ trades have mostly focused on the question of whether politicians have superior information on individual firms. The results from this study suggest that politicians’ informational advantage may go beyond individual firms such that they potentially have superior information on the overall trajectory of the economy as well.
The impact of perceived risk and disease prevention efficiency on outdoor activities and avoidance behaviors in the urban parks during COVID 19 pandemic
Authors: Khozaei Fatemeh , Kim Mi Jeong , Nematipour Narges , Ali Asif
Published: June 2021

Purpose

COVID 19 has had a profound effect on peoples’ activities and the use of public spaces. Before the COVID 19 pandemic urban parks, as healthy places, were of the most favorable places for urban citizens, but nowadays no vitality is found in urban parks due to the absence of people. The perceived risk seems to affect peoples’ decision-making for the visit to urban parks. This study aims to examine the impact of COVID 19 perceived severity and vulnerability on peoples’ visit to the urban parks and further exercise avoidance. It is expected that the result of this study would shed light on the people’s perception of healthy urban parks to exercise during COVID 19.

Design/methodology/approach

The participants were recruited from a neighborhood with the greenest and largest parks in Iran that were selected for the study. It was to assure that participants have access to the urban parks within their walkable distance. The mixed-method approach was applied to achieving the research goals. A total of 404 participants attended the survey. A series of semi-structured interviews were conducted to examine the strategies that reduce peoples’ worries about using urban parks during the COVID 19. Data were analyzed using SmartPLS.

Findings

The study hypothesized that peoples’ awareness of COVID 19 affects their perceived risk and disease prevention efficiency. Besides, it was hypothesized that perceived risk and efficacy effects outdoor activities worries exercise avoidance and behavioral avoidance in the urban parks. The result of the study supported the research hypothesis. The more knowledge people acquire of COVID 19 and the lack of efficacy of treatments, the higher they will avoid outdoor activities and exercise. The means of knowledge and perceived risk were higher than previously reported studies.

Originality/value

The result of this study is very important, as it statistically proves that peoples’ priorities and factors that affect their willingness to use public spaces are very much affected by their perception of a healthy environment. It also canonizes the role of facility managers in bringing peoples’ trust in the use of public spaces and more specifically urban parks during pandemic disease distributions.
Cross-cultural metacognition as a prior for humanitarian knowledge: when cultures collide in global health emergencies
Authors: Chin Tachia , Meng Jianwei , Wang Shouyang , Shi Yi , Zhang Jianxin
Published: June 2021

Purpose

A serious global public health emergency (GPHE) like the COVID-19 aggravates the inequilibrium of medical care and other critical resources between wealthy and poor nations, which, coupled with the collision of cultures, indicates the vital need for developing humanitarian knowledge transcending cultures. Given the scarcity of literature addressing such unprecedent issues, this paper thus proposes new, unconventional viewpoints and future themes at the intersection of knowledge management (KM) and humanitarian inquiry.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is conceptual in nature. The data of the World Bank and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs are analysed to introduce some emerging real impact topics regarding cross-cultural conflicts and humanitarian knowledge in the post-COVID business world. The theoretical foundation was built upon a critical literature review.

Findings

This paper synthesizes the perspectives of culture, KM and the humanistic philosophy to distil the core component of cultural intelligence and comparatively and thereby illuminating why cross-cultural metacognition acts as a priori for achieving cosmopolitan humanitarian knowledge.

Research limitations/implications

This paper provides profound implications to academics by highlighting the importance to formulating new, inter-disciplinary themes or unorthodox, phenomenon-driven assumptions beyond the traditional KM domain. This paper also offers practitioners and policymakers valuable insights into coping with the growing disparity between high- and low-income countries by showing warning signs of a looming humanitarian crisis associated with a GPHE context.

Originality/value

This paper does not aim to claim the birth of a new domain but call for more research on developing a normative theory of humanitarian knowledge as transcendence of cultures. It implies uncharted territories of great interest and potential for the real impact KM community.
Sharing consumers’ brand storytelling: influence of consumers’ storytelling on brand attitude via emotions and cognitions
Authors: Hong JungHwa (Jenny) , Yang Jie , Wooldridge Barbara Ross , Bhappu Anita D.
Published: June 2021

Purpose

Brand storytelling has been found to be an effective marketing tool. Unlike a brand story that originates from a firm, consumers’ brand storytelling is created, developed and shared by consumers. This research aims to examine whether consumers’ brand storytelling leads to increased favorable brand evaluations and compares its effects on consumer cognition and emotions, to a brand story generated by a firm.

Design/methodology/approach

Three experiments were conducted to test the hypotheses. In Study 1, a 2 (story: consumers’ brand storytelling vs brand story by a firm) × 2 (product: coffee shop vs airline mileage programs) between-subjects design was used. Studies 2 and 3 replicated Study 1 and investigated different measurements of the constructs using different brands. Additionally, a mediation analysis was conducted.

Findings

The results show that consumers’ brand storytelling increases favorable brand attitudes. Consumers present deeper cognitive processing and higher experienced positive emotions when they read consumer brand storytelling as compared to a firm-created brand story, leading to a more favorable brand attitude.

Originality/value

There is a lack of empirical research investigating how consumers’ brand storytelling is different from brand stories created by firms, and how consumers’ brand storytelling influences brand attitudes. This study extends the literature by clarifying how consumers respond to consumers’ brand storytelling and evaluates brands by exploring the underlying mechanism for the effect of brand storytelling via consumers’ cognitions and emotions.
Intellectual property rights policies of higher education institutions (HEIs) in India: a cross-sectional study
Authors: Sattiraju Vijay Kumar , Pandey Ravi , Pallela Ramjee , Sircar Anindya , Ligade Virendra S. , Muragundi Pradeep M. , Janodia Manthan D.
Published: June 2021

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to assess the intellectual property (IP) policy and innovation practices of higher education institutions (HEIs) and to understand the impact of national intellectual property rights (IPR) policy at the ground level. It identifies the barriers of HEIs in the generation of IP, its commercialization and technology transfer.

Design/methodology/approach

This cross-sectional study aims to understand the innovation practices and IP policy framework of HEIs in India. It was studied in a qualitative approach with a structured questionnaire tool deployed to the top management of HEIs (targeted respondents), using convenience sampling methods.

Findings

The results imply that IP policies and innovation practices of HEIs in India are evolving and need to align with the global standard as envisaged in the national IPR policy. Lack of commensurate incentives to the inventors, linkages with industries and facilities were found to be major barriers among HEIs and research institutions. Institutional IP policy shall be framed to promote industry linkages with universities resulting in successful IP generation and technology transfer.

Research limitations/implications

The sample size in this study is less; however, it does not have an impact on the study outcome, as it is a qualitative approach.

Practical implications

This study brings awareness among stakeholders of IP generation and commercialization regarding the barriers and needed changes to overcome them through policy.

Social implications

It helps policymakers to redesign the tools of IP and innovation policy to enable the innovation promotion at HEIs. This study identifies innovation practices and institutional barriers in the generation of IP.

Originality/value

This qualitative survey-based study helps in understanding the innovation practices of HEIs in India. It also aims to identify the barriers of HEIs on the generation and commercialization of IP.
I want to learn more! Integrating technology acceptance and task–technology fit models for predicting behavioural and future learning intentions
Authors: Lo Presti Alessandro , De Rosa Assunta , Viceconte Enrico
Published: June 2021

Purpose

Constant and frequent technological changes within organizations call for further scholarly attention, as behavioural intentions need to be coupled also with future learning intentions to predict the present and prospective individual adaptations and performance. This study, grounded on the technology acceptance model, aims to examine the association between training opportunities and behavioural and future learning intentions also taking into account the role of task–technology fit as a moderator.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey was carried out within a single organization in the water processing sector on a sample of 200 workers who recently experienced a technological change through the adoption of System Application and Product in data processing. A moderated–mediation model was estimated through regression analyses with bootstrapping.

Findings

The results were consistent with study hypotheses. In particular, task–technology fit amplified the positive association between perceived ease of use and training opportunities as well as the indirect effect of this latter on both behavioural and future learning intentions through perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. In sum, the hypothesized moderated–mediation model was confirmed.

Originality/value

Three novelty factors of this study can be stressed: it is among the few studies carried out on Italian workers in the realm of technology adoption, it expanded the technology acceptance model by including traditional behavioural intentions and future learning intentions as outcome variables and it integrated the task–technology fit perspective within the technology acceptance model.
The relationship between climate change and internal migration in the Americas
Authors: Silva Rodríguez de San Miguel Jorge Alejandro , Martínez Díaz Esteban , Monroy Becerril Dulce María
Published: June 2021

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between climate change and internal migration in the Americas.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic literature review type of research synthesize the state of knowledge; it was searched through the Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, among other databases, for articles that focused on climate migration, gender, water stress and models for predicting movement.

Findings

Decreased water availability and increased prevalence to water-related disasters causes internal migration. Also, male out migration is quite prevalent in South American nations with women being left to take care of the families.

Research limitations/implications

There is a need for further primary research to analyse what actions the Americas are taking to carve out a large policy-making space for themselves in climate change and internal migration.

Originality/value

The 32 papers explored in the discussion section present a novel insight into climate change, water usage, gender and internal migration. The papers also elucidate that cultural and ideological conflicts are bound to occur as the communities move with the receiving society finding it hard to accommodate the needs of the climate migrants.
CEO social capital and asset sell-offs
Authors: Danso Charles , Kaprielyan Margarita , Hossain Md Miran
Published: June 2021

Purpose

Recent studies explore how chief executive officer (CEO) social capital affects corporate decision-making. Well-connected CEOs can have greater access to information, which can lead to better corporate decisions or permit them to amass power from hierarchy status and make self-serving decisions. This study examines whether investors perceive CEO social capital as a signal of good decision-making (assuming information asymmetry) surrounding asset sell-off events.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use multivariate regression analysis to examine the effect of CEO social capital on the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) of the asset buyers and sellers. CARs are estimated using a market model in the period proximate to asset sell-off announcements.

Findings

The authors find that CEO social capital is positively associated with announcement returns of the asset sellers. Moreover, the positive effect of CEO social capital on announcement returns is more pronounced for sellers facing greater information asymmetry. An analysis of post-announcement stock performance reveals that the seller CEO social capital is associated with additional value generated for the shareholders of the seller after a month from the announcement date, especially if the transaction price is disclosed. Overall, findings are consistent with the argument that CEO social capital provides value in high information asymmetry environment.

Originality/value

To the authors' knowledge this is the first study to examine the effect of CEO social capital on the shareholders' wealth created by divestitures.
Disrupting social marketing through a practice-oriented approach
Authors: Spotswood Fiona , Wiltshire Gareth , Spear Sara , Makris Angela
Published: June 2021

Purpose

This paper aims to explore four disruptions that practice theory makes to traditional social marketing approaches to school physical activity (PA) intervention.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on existing literature from sustainable consumption, sociology of health and illness and the authors’ experiences working with primary schools in the UK to plan and execute social marketing approaches to PA, targeting interconnected social practices from which PA emerges or fails to emerge. The paper explores a practice-oriented theoretical framing, engaging with calls from interdisciplinary areas for PA interventions to shape the PA emerging from a school’s everyday routines, rather than promote PA participation at an individual level.

Findings

The paper argues first that a practice perspective would focus on situation research rather than audience research, with practices rather than people as the focus. Second, the purpose of practice-oriented social marketing would be to achieve transitions in practices rather than behaviour change. Third, the planning and management approach of practice-oriented social marketing would account for unintended consequences and complex interconnections between practices. Finally, an evolved evaluation approach to practice-oriented social marketing would take a longer term approach to understand how cultural transitions are emerging.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to an important stream of critical social marketing scholarship that seeks to advance social marketing away from its individualist routes. It sets an agenda for further research that considers the ontological and practical possibilities for practice informed approach to social marketing.
Design for additive manufacturing: a comprehensive review of the tendencies and limitations of methodologies
Authors: Lopez Taborda Luis Lisandro , Maury Heriberto , Pacheco Jovanny
Published: June 2021

Purpose

There are many investigations in design methodologies, but there are also divergences and convergences as there are so many points of view. This study aims to evaluate to corroborate and deepen other researchers’ findings, dissipate divergences and provide directing to future work on the subject from a methodological and convergent perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

This study analyzes the previous reviews (about 15 reviews) and based on the consensus and the classifications provided by these authors, a significant sample of research is analyzed in the design for additive manufacturing (DFAM) theme (approximately 80 articles until June of 2017 and approximately 280–300 articles until February of 2019) through descriptive statistics, to corroborate and deepen the findings of other researchers.

Findings

Throughout this work, this paper found statistics indicating that the main areas studied are: multiple objective optimizations, execution of the design, general DFAM and DFAM for functional performance. Among the main conclusions: there is a lack of innovation in the products developed with the methodologies, there is a lack of exhaustivity in the methodologies, there are few efforts to include environmental aspects in the methodologies, many of the methods include economic and cost evaluation, but are not very explicit and broad (sustainability evaluation), it is necessary to consider a greater variety of functions, among other conclusions

Originality/value

The novelty in this study is the methodology. It is very objective, comprehensive and quantitative. The starting point is not the case studies nor the qualitative criteria, but the figures and quantities of methodologies. The main contribution of this review article is to guide future work on the subject from a methodological and convergent perspective and this article provides a broad database with articles containing information on many issues to make decisions: design methodology; optimization; processes, selection of parts and materials; cost and product management; mechanical, electrical and thermal properties; health and environmental impact, etc.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism operations and resilience: stakeholders’ perspective in Sri Lanka
Authors: Karunarathne A.C.I.D. , Ranasinghe J.P.R.C. , Sammani U.G.O. , Perera K.J.T.
Published: June 2021

Purpose

The tourism industry has been extensively affected by numerous disasters throughout its history including 30 decades of ethnic war, the tsunami disaster in 2004 and the Easter Sunday attack in 2019 substantially impacted the resources and capacities of the tourism industry in Sri Lanka. This study aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 on Sri Lanka as a tourism destination and the tourism industry as a resilient sector of the economy.

Design/methodology/approach

This qualitative study was conducted from July 2020 to September 2020 focusing on the perspectives of multi-level stakeholders in the tourism and hospitality industry in three distinct areas of Sri Lanka, namely, the coastal area, hill country and cultural triangle. The data were collected from 15 stakeholders via semistructured interviews. Convenience sampling method was used to choose the sample and thematic analysis was occupied to meet the study objectives.

Findings

This study will help to reframe the resources and capacities of the country as an emerging destination identifying the diverse credentials from the perspective of different stakeholders to embed the essential resilience after the pandemic.

Research limitations/implications

The prevailing lockdown situation and travel restrictions within the country was a huge challenge during the data collection process. Further to that, the respondents were reluctant to meet outsiders owing to the health threat, and hence some important stakeholders were missing from the study.

Originality/value

This study proposes effective measures to build up a robust destination, necessary strategic planning for policymakers and provisions for stakeholders in the industry to address the health and safety of travelers in the case of future potential health epidemics.
The immunoregulatory axis (programmed death‐1/programmed death ligand‐1) on CD4+ T cells in lupus nephritis: association with vitamin D and chemokine C‐X‐C motif ligand 12
Authors: Youssry Sara , Hussein Amina , Moaaz Mai
Published: June 2021

Lupus nephritis (LN) is one of the most serious complications of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Multiple immunomodulatory mechanisms contribute to the pathogenesis of LN. A deep understanding of the immunopathogenesis of LN is essential to identify optimal molecular targets, as most immunotherapeutic algorithms are still based on unselective drugs. The study aimed to elucidate the possible association of vitamin D deficiency with the programmed death‐1 (PD‐1)/programmed death ligand‐1 (PD‐L1) axis and inflammatory response in patients with LN, as well as the relationship between the PD‐1/PD‐L1 axis and chemokine C‐X‐C motif ligand 12 (CXCL12). Flow cytometry was used to determine the frequencies of CD279 (PD‐1) and CD274 (PD‐L1) in the peripheral CD3+CD4+ cell population of persons with LN. Furthermore, ELISA was used to detect serum CXCL12 and vitamin D concentrations. A distinct decrease of PD‐1 and a significant increase of PD‐L1 was demonstrated in patients with LN compared with either SLE patients with no LN or healthy controls. The PD‐1/PD‐L1 axis was negatively correlated with different disease parameters. Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency were more prevalent in patients with LN than in controls, being significantly associated with disease activity and inversely associated with the PD‐1/PD‐L1 expression. Moreover, CXCL12 was negatively correlated with the PD‐1/PD‐L1 axis and vitamin D concentration. The findings suggest an involvement of the PD‐1/PD‐L1 axis in lupus nephritis, which might serve as a potential highly selective therapeutic target that is more effective but less toxic. In addition, restoring adequate vitamin D levels in lupus nephritis could be a possible simple measure to control inflammatory immune responses.
Using leading and lagging indicators for forest restoration
Authors: Ota Liz , Firn Jennifer , Chazdon Robin L. , Gregorio Nestor , Mukul Sharif A. , Viani Ricardo A. G. , Romero Claudia , Herbohn John
Published: June 2021

Forest restoration targets are often planned, implemented, measured and reported based on few short‐term lagging indicators (i.e. indicators of realised outcomes), such as the number of seedlings and area planted.

We propose the use of leading indicators, which denote likelihood of a certain outcome (e.g. odds that seedlings are of quality and properly planted) to complement lagging indicators and describe how this construct differs from the current practice and how they can be used in conjunction with available frameworks for forest restoration.

Leading indicators have great promise to complement lagging indicators because they address the near‐term factors more likely to influence the progress and performance of restoration efforts. For example, secure land tenure (leading indicator) can increase the likelihood of long‐term maintenance and protection (lagging indicator), and the use of best practices in quality seedling production (leading indicator) can increase survival rate (lagging indicator).

By observing near‐term leading indicators, management can be adapted towards a goal. Long‐term impacts cannot be verified in the early stages of forest restoration, hence claiming success within the length of project cycles is often unrealistic. Reporting on leading indicators can inform the likelihood that forest restoration goals will be achieved in the longer term.

Synthesis and applications. Leading indicators complement lagging indicators and can be used in forest restoration beyond monitoring and evaluation. Indicators can also be used in the design, adaptive management and reporting of restoration interventions. Leading indicators can be used to identify issues that might prevent success in a timely manner so they can be addressed.
Variation in resource allocation strategies and environmental driving factors for different life‐forms of aquatic plants in cold temperate zones
Authors: Hu Jingwen , Yu Hongwei , Li Yang , Wang Junnan , Lv Tian , Liu Chunhua , Yu Dan
Published: June 2021

Resource allocation, including biomass allocation and nutrient allocation between different organs in a plant, reflects the trade‐off in partitioning between above‐ground and below‐ground organs and the growth and adaptation strategies of plants in a changing environment. Although varied resource allocation patterns among different organs in different functional groups of terrestrial plants have been found, few studies have focused on freshwater ecosystems.

In this study, to clarify biomass and nutrient allocation strategies and their responses to environmental factors, we collected and analysed 2,162 samples from 262 aquatic plant communities (including emergent plants, floating‐leaved plants and submerged plants) in various aquatic habitats in north‐eastern China.

The results showed that the root/shoot (R/S) ratios of the three aquatic plant life‐forms were significantly different, and the trend showed that the ratio values for the three plant life‐forms occurred in the following order: emergent plants > floating‐leaved plants > submerged plants. There were obvious scaling relationships between above‐ground biomass, N (or P or N:P ratios) and below‐ground biomass, N (or P or N:P ratios), but their scaling exponents changed among different aquatic plant life‐forms. The allocation of biomass and nutrients between different organ responses to environmental factors was not consistent for the different life‐forms of aquatic plants. The partial least squares path model revealed that plant stoichiometric characteristics are important direct drivers of biomass production. Climate conditions, water properties and soil nutrients indirectly affect biomass through effects on plant stoichiometric characteristics.

Synthesis. Our study demonstrates that global climate change may affect water properties and soil nutrients, influence plant stoichiometric characteristics and affect aquatic plant growth, further altering aquatic plant community structure and biogeochemical cycles.
Circulating levels of hydrogen sulphide negatively correlate to nitrite levels in gestational hypertensive and preeclamptic pregnant women
Authors: Possomato‐Vieira Jose Sergio , Palei Ana Carolina , Pinto‐Souza Caroline Cristina , Cavalli Ricardo , Dias‐Junior Carlos Alan , Sandrim Valeria
Published: June 2021

Endothelial dysfunction is a hallmark of preeclampsia and the role of nitric oxide (NO) has been extensively studied in this pregnancy complication. In recent years, hydrogen sulphide (H2S) has arisen as a new gasotransmitter with an impact on endothelial function. However, the involvement of H2S in the pathophysiology of preeclampsia is not fully understood, and only a few studies with limited sample size have investigated circulating levels of H2S in preeclamptic patients. Moreover, H2S levels have not been previously evaluated in gestational hypertension. Furthermore, the relationship between H2S and NO in these hypertensive disorders of pregnancy has yet to be determined. We measured H2S levels in plasma of 120 healthy pregnant women, 88 gestational hypertensive and 62 preeclamptic women. We also measured plasma nitrite in a subset of patients and carried out correlation analysis between plasma H2S and nitrite in these three groups. We found that plasma H2S was elevated in preeclampsia and further increased in gestational hypertension compared to healthy pregnancy. Plasma nitrite was reduced in gestational hypertension and preeclampsia, and these levels were negatively correlated with H2S in both gestational hypertension and preeclampsia, but not in healthy pregnancy. Our results indicate that increases in H2S may represent a mechanism triggered as an attempt to compensate reduced NO in gestational hypertension and preeclampsia. Future studies are warranted to investigate the mechanisms underlying H2S/NO interaction on mediating endothelial dysfunction in these hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.
Predicting the dynamics of establishing tree populations: A framework for statistical inference and lessons for data collection
Authors: Lamonica Dominique , Pagel Jörn , Schurr Frank M.
Published: June 2021

Under global change, there is an urgent need to forecast the dynamics of establishing tree populations. However, tree population dynamics are slow and historical data on these dynamics are rare. This raises the question whether tree population dynamics can be reconstructed from data collected at a single time point. Doing so poses challenges for modelling, data collection and model‐data integration.

We present a Bayesian framework that uses multiple data types to parametrize an individual‐based model (IBM) for the growth of establishing tree populations. The framework combines likelihood‐based Bayesian inference and approximate Bayesian computation (ABC). Using this framework, we assess the information content of three data types (recruitment data, dendrochronological data describing individual growth and molecular markers characterizing within‐population pedigrees) by comparing the bias and uncertainty of parameter estimates and model forecasts obtained under different simulated scenarios of data availability.

The combination of all data types leads to accurate forecasts of the future state of tree populations, despite large uncertainties in some parameter estimates. Dendrochronological data were the most informative of the examined data types. Combining data types improved forecasts of population state. Nevertheless, for a given parameter related to a given process, combining data types did not improve estimates compared to using only the data type most closely related to the process.

The presented Bayesian framework allows to infer the dynamics of establishing tree populations from data collected at a single time point. It helps to optimally allocate limited resources for data collection in order to rapidly improve the understanding and forecasting of tree population dynamics.
A generalised analysis of similarities (ANOSIM) statistic for designs with ordered factors
Authors: Somerfield Paul J. , Clarke K. Robert , Gorley Ray N.
Published: June 2021

In the study of multivariate data, for example of change in ecological communities, ANOSIM is a robust non‐parametric hypothesis‐testing framework for differences in resemblances among groups of samples. RELATE is a non‐parametric Mantel test of the hypothesis of no relationship between two resemblance matrices. Details are given of the explicit link between the RELATE statistic, a Spearman rank correlation (ρ) between corresponding elements in the two resemblance matrices, and the ANOSIM statisticR, a scaled contrast between the among‐ and within‐group ranks. It is seen thatRcan equivalently be defined as the slope of the linear regression of ranked resemblances from observations against ranked distances among samples, the latter from a simple model matrix assigning the values 1 and 0 to between‐ and within‐group distances, respectively. Re‐defining this model matrix to represent ordered distances among groups leads naturally to a generalised ANOSIM statistic,RO, suitable for testing, for example, ordered factor levels in space or time, or an environmental or pollution gradient. Two variants of the generalised ANOSIM statistic are described, namelyROcwhere there are replicates within groups, andROswhere there are only single samples (no replicates) within groups, for which an ANOSIM test was not previously available. Three marine ecological examples using ANOSIM to analyse an ordered factor in one‐way designs are provided. These are: (1) changes in macrofaunal composition with increasing distance from an oil rig; (2) differences in phytal meiofaunal community composition with increasing macroalgal complexity; and (3) changes in average community composition of free‐living nematodes along a long‐term heavy metal gradient. Incorporating knowledge of an ordering structure is seen to provide more focussed, and thus stronger, ANOSIM tests, but inevitably risks losing power if that prior knowledge is incorrect or inappropriate.
Simulation‐based estimators of analytically intractable causal effects
Authors: Linero Antonio R.
Published: June 2021

In causal inference problems, one is often tasked with estimating causal effects which are analytically intractable functionals of the data‐generating mechanism. Relevant settings include estimating intention‐to‐treat effects in longitudinal problems with missing data or computing direct and indirect effects in mediation analysis. One approach to computing these effects is to use the g‐formula implemented via Monte Carlo integration; when simulation‐based methods such as the nonparametric bootstrap or Markov chain Monte Carlo are used for inference, Monte Carlo integration must be nested within an already computationally intensive algorithm. We develop a widely‐applicable approach to accelerating this Monte Carlo integration step which greatly reduces the computational burden of existing g‐computation algorithms. We refer to our method as accelerated g‐computation (AGC). The algorithms we present are similar in spirit to multiple imputation, but require removing within‐imputation variance from the standard error rather than adding it. We illustrate the use of AGC on a mediation analysis problem using a beta regression model and in a longitudinal clinical trial subject to nonignorable missingness using a Bayesian additive regression trees model.
Connexin32 activates necroptosis through Src‐mediated inhibition of caspase 8 in hepatocellular carcinoma
Authors: Xiang Yu‐ke , Peng Fu‐hua , Guo Yun‐quan , Ge Hui , Cai Shao‐yi , Fan Li‐xia , Peng Yue‐xia , Wen Hao , Wang Qin , Tao Liang
Published: June 2021

Necroptosis is an alternative form of programmed cell death that generally occurs under apoptosis‐deficient conditions. Our previous work showed that connexin32 (Cx32) promotes the malignant progress of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by enhancing the ability of resisting apoptosis in vivo and in vitro. Whether triggering necroptosis is a promising strategy to eliminate the apoptosis‐resistant HCC cells with high Cx32 expression remains unknown. In this study, we found that Cx32 expression was positively correlated with the expression of necroptosis protein biomarkers in human HCC specimens, cell lines, and a xenograft model. Treatment with shikonin, a well‐used necroptosis inducer, markedly caused necroptosis in HCC cells. Interestingly, overexpressed Cx32 exacerbated shikonin‐induced necroptosis, but downregulation of Cx32 alleviated necroptosis in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, Cx32 was found to bind to Src and promote Src‐mediated caspase 8 phosphorylation and inactivation, which ultimately reduced the activated caspase 8‐mediated proteolysis of receptor‐interacting serine‐threonine protein kinase 1/3, the key molecule for necroptosis activation. In conclusion, we showed that Cx32 contributed to the activation of necroptosis in HCC cells through binding to Src and then mediating the inactivation of caspase 8. The present study suggested that necroptosis inducers could be more favorable than apoptosis inducers to eliminate HCC cells with high expression of Cx32.
Rational design of novel N‐alkyl amine analogues of noscapine, their chemical synthesis and cellular activity as potent anticancer agents
Authors: Meher Rajesh Kumar , Pragyandipta Pratyush , Pedapati Ravi K. , Nagireddy Praveen K. R. , Kantevari Srinivas , Nayek Arnab K. , Naik Pradeep K.
Published: June 2021

The scaffold structure of noscapine (an antitussive plant alkaloid) was modified by inducting N‐aryl methyl pharmacophore at C‐9 position of the isoquinoline ring to rationally design and screened three novel 9‐(N‐arylmethylamino) noscapinoids, 15–17 with robust binding affinity with tubulin. The selected 9‐(N‐arylmethylamino) noscapinoids revealed improved predicted binding energy of −6.694 kcal/mol for 15, −7.118 kcal/mol for 16 and −7.732 kcal/mol for 17, respectively in comparison to the lead molecule (−5.135 kcal/mol). These novel derivatives were chemically synthesized and validated their anticancer activity based on cellular studies using two human breast adenocarcinoma, MCF‐7 and MDA‐MB‐231, as well as with a panel of primary breast tumor cells. These derivatives inhibited cellular proliferation in all the cancer cells that ranged between 3.2 and 32.2 μM, which is 11.9 to 1.8 fold lower than that of noscapine. These novel derivatives effectively arrest the cell cycle in the G2/M phase followed by apoptosis and appearance of apoptotic cells. Thus, we conclude that 9‐(N‐arylmethyl amino) noscapinoids, 15–17 have a high probability to be a novel therapeutic agent for breast cancers.
State of the Art on Computational Design of Assemblies with Rigid Parts
Authors: Wang Ziqi , Song Peng , Pauly Mark
Published: June 2021

An assembly refers to a collection of parts joined together to achieve a specific form and/or functionality. Designing assemblies is a non‐trivial task as a slight local modification on a part's geometry or its joining method could have a global impact on the structural and/or functional performance of the whole assembly. Assemblies can be classified asstructuresthat transmit force to carry loads andmechanismsthat transfer motion and force to perform mechanical work. In this state‐of‐the‐art report, we focus on computational design of structures with rigid parts, which generally can be formulated as a geometric modeling and optimization problem. We broadly classify existing computational design approaches, mainly from the computer graphics community, according to high‐level design objectives, including fabricability, structural stability, reconfigurability, and tileability. Computational analysis of various aspects of assemblies is an integral component in these design approaches. We review different classes of computational analysis and design methods, discuss their strengths and limitations, make connections among them, and propose possible directions for future research.
A Survey on Bounding Volume Hierarchies for Ray Tracing
Authors: Meister Daniel , Ogaki Shinji , Benthin Carsten , Doyle Michael J. , Guthe Michael , Bittner Jiří
Published: June 2021

Ray tracing is an inherent part of photorealistic image synthesis algorithms. The problem of ray tracing is to find the nearest intersection with a given ray and scene. Although this geometric operation is relatively simple, in practice, we have to evaluate billions of such operations as the scene consists of millions of primitives, and the image synthesis algorithms require a high number of samples to provide a plausible result. Thus, scene primitives are commonly arranged in spatial data structures to accelerate the search. In the last two decades, the bounding volume hierarchy (BVH) has become the de facto standard acceleration data structure for ray tracing‐based rendering algorithms in offline and recently also in real‐time applications. In this report, we review the basic principles of bounding volume hierarchies as well as advanced state of the art methods with a focus on the construction and traversal. Furthermore, we discuss industrial frameworks, specialized hardware architectures, other applications of bounding volume hierarchies, best practices, and related open problems.