bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Does eco-innovation lift firm value? The contingent role of institutions in emerging markets
Authors: Yao Qiong , Liu Jinxin , Sheng Shibin , Fang Heng
Published: August 2019

Purpose

Drawing on the literature of eco-innovation and institutional theory, this research aims to answer two fundamental questions: Does eco-innovation improve or harm firm value in emerging markets? and How institutional environments moderate the relationship between eco-innovation and firm value? We explicate the regulatory, normative and cognitive pillars of institutions, manifested as regulation intensity, environmental agency pressure and public pressure, respectively.

Design/methodology/approach

For this study, a cross-sectional panel data set was assembled from multiple archival sources, including data coded from the corporate annual reports and social responsibility reports, statistical yearbooks, China Stock Market Financial Database (CSMAR) and other secondary sources. A hierarchical regression method was used to test the hypotheses. The data comprised 88 firms sampled over four years. The model using feasible generalized least squares (FGLSs) to control heteroscedasticity in errors due to unobserved heterogeneity was estimated.

Findings

Empirical findings from a data set compiled from multiple archival sources reveal that both eco-product and eco-process innovation negatively relate to firm value. The interactions between eco-innovation and regulation intensity, environmental agency pressure and public pressure are positively related to firm value.

Originality/value

First, this study extends the literature of eco-innovation by investigating the impact of eco-innovation on firm value. Contrary to the conventional anecdotal evidence of the beneficial effect of eco-innovation, it was found that eco-innovation relates negatively to firm value. Second, this study develops and tests an institutional contingent view of eco-innovation by accounting for the moderating role of regulatory, normative and cognitive pressures.
The Web unravels
Authors: Hirsch Peter Buell
Published: August 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the splintering of the global internet into sovereign, government-controlled islands on the communications strategies and tactics of global corporations.

Design/methodology/approach

The approach taken was to review the various ways in which powerful authoritarian regimes such as Russia and China are controlling the Web to dissect the ways in which this could impact corporations.

Findings

The author believes that unless governments, civil entities and corporations collaborate to develop common standards for free speech and privacy, the Web as we know it today will cease to exist.

Research limitations/implications

The research is based on selected books and articles reviewed by the author and is not comprehensive.

Practical implications

Corporations will need to examine the impact of these developments on their own communications needs and strategies to develop the collaborations proposed.

Social implications

Without a universal global internet, the ability of citizens across the world to exchange ideas and develop strategies to tackle global problems will be severely curtailed.

Originality/value

The author does not believe that the splintering of the internet has been considered from the perspective of the global corporation.
The beauty and the beast of consumption: a review of the consequences of consumption
Authors: Nasr Nada
Published: August 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to answer the following question: What can researchers learn from consumer research that can inform them about the consequences of consumption?

Design/methodology/approach

This paper follows guidelines for a summarization conceptual model. First, the paper offers a review of consumption theories and research studies on a variety of consumption-related constructs. Then, a bird’s-eye view is taken to critically synthesize the findings.

Findings

The consequences of consumption can be summarized along a framework reflecting the positive and negative effects of consumption on oneself, one’s relationships, one’s society and the Earth. Knowledge gaps in previous research are identified, and a set of propositions is provided to enrich the understanding of the consequences of consumption.

Research limitations/implications

The bird’s-eye view of the studies addressing the impacts of consumption identified gaps of knowledge in this area; these gaps constitute valuable topics for future researchers to study. The findings of the paper stress the need for studying the boundaries of different consumption effects. The review emphasizes the complex intermingling between consumer motives (antecedents) to behave in certain ways and the impacts (consequences) of such behaviors. The major limitation to this research stems from the immensity of the task involved.

Practical implications

This paper informs public policymakers on how to create realistic regulations that take into consideration the complexity of consumption. It calls on governments to provide an infrastructure that facilitates experiential consumption and to educate consumers, through the media and the public schools, to consume responsibly.

Originality/value

Whereas previous researchers have focused on a particular consumption practice while studying the consequences of consumption, this paper provides a comprehensive review that includes an array of practices. This paper synthesizes previous research findings through presenting a framework delineating the effects of consumption and identifying knowledge gaps in this research domain. The paper also provides a set of propositions that can guide future research on the topic.
The relation between school climate and preschool teacher stress
Authors: Hu Bi Ying , Li Yuanhua , Wang Chuang , Reynolds Barry Lee , Wang Shuang
Published: August 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between school climate and teacher stress. Specifically, the authors construct two parsimonious models to test two main hypotheses. First, whether preschool collegial leadership predicts teachers’ job stress through the mediating role of teacher self-efficacy; second, whether teacher professionalism influences teachers’ perceptions of occupational stress through the mediating role of teacher self-efficacy.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conceptualized the mediating role of teacher efficacy as an important mechanism that can help to explain the effect of school climate on teacher stress. School climate consisted of two dimensions: principal collegial leadership and professionalism. Therefore, the authors constructed and examined two mediation models by using Bootstrapping mediation modeling: first, preschool teacher self-efficacy as a mediator between preschool collegial leadership and teacher stress; second, preschool teacher self-efficacy as a mediator between preschool teacher professionalism and teacher stress.

Findings

Results from two mediation analyses showed that principal collegial leadership exerts a significant negative effect on preschool teachers’ stress through the mediating role of teacher self-efficacy. Moreover, professionalism was also a significant predictor of preschool teachers’ stress through the mediating role of teacher self-efficacy.

Research limitations/implications

This study contributes to the literature in terms of understanding the mechanism of how school climate helps to reduce teacher stress. First, the authors found that teachers’ individual well-being can be efficiently enhanced through a more collegial leadership. Second, the preschool leadership teams can create a supportive climate to reduce teachers’ stress by improving teachers’ professionalism.

Originality/value

This study offers a new perspective about understanding the internal and external mechanism of teacher stress. The authors discussed the results in light of the recent push by the Chinese Government to teacher quality improvement in early childhood education. The authors argued for prioritizing support for building a supportive school climate for teachers.
Effectiveness of humanitarian logistics training
Authors: Stuns Karl-Kristian , Heaslip Graham
Published: August 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of humanitarian logistics training for the Finnish Red Cross (FRC) Emergency Response Unit (ERU) delegates, and the factors that influence its success. The managerial purpose of this research is to support the FRC in improving their Logistics ERU Foundation training. Additionally, this research provides humanitarian organisations, engaged in emergency response efforts, insights for logistics training design.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a case study examining the FRC, with qualitative data being collected in a field study, utilising participant observation and in-context interview techniques for rich data collection.

Findings

This research evaluated the effectiveness of the Logistics ERU Foundation training of the FRC by adapting the four-level training evaluation model by Kirkpatrick and transfer of training theories. The research has contributed to Grallaet al.’s (2015) call for further research in evaluating what people learn from humanitarian logistics trainings and in documenting and sharing experiences with specific training programs.

Practical implications

The conceptual framework serves as a basis for exploratory qualitative investigation of training transfer, from the perspectives of trainees, facilitators and human resource personnel.

Originality/value

This research contributes to the humanitarian community by identifying gaps in Red Cross Logistics ERU training and to the development of curricula content relating to Red Cross logistics response phase operations. Additionally, this gives other humanitarian organisations, operating in the response phase of natural disasters, insights for logistics training design.
Design of hazardous materials transportation safety management system under the vehicle-infrastructure connected environment
Authors: Yang Xueyan , Ma Changxi , Zhu Changfeng , Qi Bo , Pan Fuquan , Zhu Chengming
Published: August 2019

Purpose

For the purpose of reducing the incidence of hazardous materials transport accident, eliminating the potential threats and ensuring their safety, aiming at the shortcomings in the process of current hazardous materials transportation management, this paper aims to construct the framework of hazardous materials transportation safety management system under the vehicle-infrastructure connected environment.

Design/methodology/approach

The system takes the intelligent connected vehicle as the main supporter, integrating GIS, GPS, eye location, GSM, networks and database technology.

Findings

By analyzing the transportation characteristics of hazardous materials, this system consists of five subsystems, which are vehicle and driver management subsystem, dangerous sources and hazardous materials management subsystem, route analysis and optimization subsystem, early warning and emergency rescue management subsystem, and basic information query subsystem.

Originality/value

Hazardous materials transportation safety management system includes omnibearing real-time monitoring, timely updating of system database, real-time generation and optimization of emergency rescue route. The system can reduce the transportation cost and improve the ability of accident prevention and emergency rescue of hazardous materials.
Factors responsible for making young urban consumers brand loyal
Authors: Chakraborty Debarun
Published: August 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to find out what are the factors responsible for making urban young consumers loyal to a particular brand.

Design/methodology/approach

The researcher used the convenience sampling method, and 206 respondents provided their responses from Kolkata. The study used exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis with the help of AMOS software to find out the result, and the responses were collected from young urban customers only.

Findings

The study reveals that service quality is the most influencing factor, and it has a significant and positive effect on satisfaction. The result also reveals that satisfaction does have a direct impact on brand loyalty.

Originality/value

The study has been conducted in Kolkata, and the perception has been gathered from the young consumers only. In this domain, so far, no studies have been conducted in West Bengal or in India. This study provides a glimpse of the behavior of young urban consumers on brand loyalty.
Stability check of tapered steel beams in fire
Authors: Couto Carlos , Maia Élio , Vila Real Paulo , Lopes Nuno
Published: August 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the adaptation to fire of current proposals/design methodologies at normal temperature is capable of producing accurate predictions of resistance for the out-of-plane stability of tapered beams.

Design/methodology/approach

The adaptation of these methodologies to fire has been done by accounting for the reduction in steel material properties with the temperature. Results were then compared to FEM calculations by performing GMNIA analyses to determine the ultimate strength of the numerical models and to ascertain the validity and accuracy of the adapted methodologies.

Findings

Although all methodologies produce safe results at normal temperatures, only the general method is recommended for the safety verification at elevated temperatures, although the data points were overly conservative. This investigation demonstrates the need of proper and accurate design methods for tapered beams at elevated temperatures, which should be the subject of future developments.

Research limitations/implications

The research in this paper is limited to the adaptation of existing room temperature design methods to fire. Therefore, possible assumptions made during the conception of the initial formulae, which may be valid exclusively for 20ºC, may have been disregarded.

Originality/value

For the time being, design methodologies for the safety check of tapered beams for the case of fire are inexistent. This paper investigates the adaptation of existing room temperature design to the fire situation by providing insights on their accuracy level, as well as on how to proceed. Finally, a safe design methodology for tapered beams in case of fire is provided until improved design methods are developed.
Fire tests of steel tension rod systems with intumescent coating
Authors: Häßler Mai , Häßler Dustin , Hothan Sascha , Krüger Simone
Published: August 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the performance of intumescent coating on tension rod systems and their components. Steel tension rod systems consist of tension rods, fork end connectors and associated intersection or gusset plates. In case of fire, beside the tension rods themselves, the connection parts require appropriate fire protection. Intumescent fire protection coatings prevent a rapid heating of the steel and help secure the structural load-carrying capacity. Because the connection components of tension rod systems feature surface curvature and a complex geometry, high demand is placed on the intumescence and thermal protection performance of the coatings.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, experimental studies were carried out for steel tension rod systems with intumescent coating. The examined aspects include the foaming and cracking behaviour, the influence of different dry film thicknesses, the heating rate of the steel connecting parts in comparison to the tension rods, and the mounting orientation of the tension rods together with their fork end connectors.

Findings

The results show that a decrease in surface curvature and/or an increase in mass concentration of the steel components leads to a lower heating rate of the steel. Moreover, the performance of the intumescent coating on tension rod systems is influenced by the mounting orientation of the steel components.

Originality/value

The findings based on fire tests contribute to a better understanding of the intumescent coating performance on connection components of tension rod systems. This subject has not been extensively studied yet.
Spot lap joining of AA5052 to AISI 1006 by aluminium extrusion via friction forming technique
Authors: Hussein Sabah Khammass , Abdullah Isam Tareq , Hussein Abbas Khammas
Published: August 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to join AA5052 to AISI 1006 steel sheets using the spot friction forming technique.

Design/methodology/approach

A steel sheet was pre-holed with a diameter of 4.8 mm and pre-threaded with a single internal M6 thread. Lap joint configuration was used so that the aluminium specimen was put over steel. A rotating tool with a 10 mm diameter was used for the joining process. A Taguchi method was used to design three process parameters (plunging tool depth, rotating speed and preheating time), with three levels for each parameter. The effect of the process parameters on the joint shear strength was analysed. The macrostructure, microstructure and scanning electron microscope of the joint were investigated. The temperature distribution during the joining process was recorded.

Findings

The formed aluminium was extruded through the steel hole and penetrated through the thread slot. A mechanical interlock was achieved between the extruded aluminium and the steel. The plunging depth of the tool exhibited a significant effect on the joint shear strength. The joint efficiency increased gradually as the plunging depth increased. Two modes of failure were found shear and pull-out. The maximum temperature during the process reached 50 per cent of aluminium’s melting point.

Originality/value

For the first time, AA5052 was joined with AISI 1006 steel using a friction spot forming technique with an excellent joint efficiency.
Institutional ambidexterity and management control
Authors: Diab Ahmed Abdelnaby Ahmed , Mohamed Metwally Abdelmoneim Bahyeldin
Published: August 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate in depth how an organisation is able to achieve its economic objectives in a situation of institutional complexity through being institutionally dexterous. The study also investigates how this is done through overriding formal controls and concentrating on socio-political and communal-based controls.

Design/methodology/approach

Theoretically, the study draws on the perspectives of institutional complexity and ambidexterity to link higher-order institutions with mundane labour control practices observed at the micro level of the case company. Methodologically, the study adopts an interpretive – case study – approach. Empirical data were solicited in an Egyptian village community, where sugar beet farming and processing constitutes the main economic activity underlying its livelihood. Data were collected through a triangulation of interviews, documents and observations.

Findings

The study concludes that, especially in socio-political contexts such as Egypt, the organisational environment can better be understood and perceived as institutionally complex situation. To manage such complexity and to effectively meet its economic objectives, the organisation needs to be institutionally dextrous. Thereby, this study presents an inclusive view of management control (MC) which is based not only on rational economic practices, but also on social, religious and political aspects that are central to this institutional environment.

Originality/value

The study contributes to MC and logics literature in a number of respects. It extends the institutional logics debate by illustrating that logics get re-institutionalised by the “place” through its cultural, political and communal identities that filter logics’ complexities to different ends. Further, it extends the cultural political economy of MC by illustrating that MC in socio-political settings is also an operational manifestation of the logics prevailing in the context. These logics produced an informal MC system that dominated the formal known MCs.
Rupturing the limitations and masculinities of traditional academic discourse through collective memoir
Authors: Crimmins Gail , Black Alison L. , Jones Janice K. , Loch Sarah , Impiccini Julianne
Published: August 2019

Purpose

The authors, seven women–writers–performers–artists–academics, have been working collectively for a year, storying, de-storying and re-storying the experience of our lives. The authors write to “taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect” (Nin, 1976), to uncover and learn ourselves through writing (Richardson, 1997), to take the “risky” steps of talking to each other about our inner lives (Palmer, 1998). Cognisant of the limitations and masculinities of traditional academic discourses, in form and content, and heavily confined by neoliberal expectations to count and be counted, we write and express the stories of lives the authors did not choose or imagine – lives we are given and live through. Our expression inhabits aesthetic, contemplative and sensory ways of knowing and employs poetry, image, song and story to create a polyvocal account of women’s lives, voices, struggles and learning. The authors share here part of our collective memoir and its development. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is designed as a collective memoir.

Findings

The authors write and express the stories of lives we did not choose or imagine – lives we are given and live through. The expression inhabits aesthetic, contemplative and sensory ways of knowing and employs poetry, image, song and story to create a polyvocal account of women’s lives, voices, struggles and learning. The authors share here part of our collective memoir and its development.

Research limitations/implications

The research focuses on autoethnography and lived experience.

Originality/value

Auto-ethnography/lived experience offers rich insights into the personal and political actions and actors within higher education.
Indigenous knowledges, priorities and processes in qualitative organization and management research
Authors: Love Tyron Rakeiora
Published: August 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this short paper is to comment on the powerful contribution researchers have made to the emerging field of Indigenous O&M scholarship.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reviews the work in the field of Indigenous O&M.

Findings

Indigenous O&M research, first, has been driven by the effects of colonization and the attempts to reclaim traditional ways of researching, organizing and managing, second; has sought asylum in established critical and alternative fields of scholarship to create research legitimacy in the mainstream, and; third, produced novel methodological processes.

Originality/value

Several observations of the field will be made and some considerations are put forward to promote research within the tight – almost impenetrable – boundaries of the academy and its institutions.
Investigating unlearning and forgetting in organizations
Authors: Kluge Annette , Schüffler Arnulf Sebastian , Thim Christof , Haase Jennifer , Gronau Norbert
Published: August 2019

Purpose

Insight has grown that for an organization to learn and change successfully, forgetting and unlearning are required. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the relevant existing body of empirical research on forgetting and unlearning, to encourage research using a greater variety of methods and to contribute to a more complementary body of empirical work by using designs and instruments with a stronger reference to previous studies.

Design/methodology/approach

As the number of theoretical papers clearly exceeds the number of empirical papers, the present paper deals with the main insights based on the empirical state of research on unlearning and forgetting. So far, these empirical results have shown relationships between unlearning and other organizational outcomes such as innovation on an organizational level, but many of the other proposed relationships have not been investigated. The authors presents suggestion to apply a larger variety of qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods in organizational research.

Findings

Unlearning and forgetting research can benefit both from more diverse theoretical questions addressed in research and from a more complementary body of empirical work that applies methods, designs and instruments that refer to previous research designs and results. To understand and manage unlearning and forgetting, empirical work should relate to and expand upon previous empirical work to form a more coherent understanding of empirical results.

Originality/value

The paper presents a variety of research designs and methods that can be applied within the research context of understanding the nature of organizational forgetting and unlearning. Additionally, it illustrates the potential for different methods, such as experience sampling methods, which capture the temporal aspects of forgetting and unlearning.
Symbiosis of a P2‐family phage and deep‐sea Shewanella putrefaciens
Authors: Liu Xiaoxiao , Tang Kaihao , Zhang Dali , Li Yangmei , Liu Zhe , Yao Jianyun , Wood Thomas K. , Wang Xiaoxue
Published: August 2019

Almost all bacterial genomes harbour prophages, yet it remains unknown why prophages integrate into tRNA‐related genes. Approximately 1/3 of Shewanella isolates harbour a prophage at the tmRNA (ssrA) gene. Here, we discovered a P2‐family prophage integrated at the 3′‐end of ssrA in the deep‐sea bacterium S. putrefaciens. We found that ~0.1% of host cells are lysed to release P2 constitutively during host growth. P2 phage production is induced by a prophage‐encoded Rep protein and its excision is induced by the Cox protein. We also found that P2 genome excision leads to the disruption of wobble base pairing of SsrA due to site‐specific recombination, thus disrupting the trans‐translation function of SsrA. We further demonstrated that P2 excision greatly hinders growth in seawater medium and inhibits biofilm formation. Complementation with a functional SsrA in the P2‐excised strain completely restores the growth defects in seawater medium and partially restores biofilm formation. Additionally, we found that products of the P2 genes also increase biofilm formation. Taken together, this study illustrates a symbiotic relationship between P2 and its marine host, thus providing multiple benefits for both sides when a phage is integrated but suffers from reduced fitness when the prophage is excised.
Confronting Bluebeard: totalitarian regimes in childhood and in the collective psyche
Authors: Wright Susanna
Published: August 2019

Beginning with the story of Bluebeard, the author considers how traumatic overwhelm can occur in everyday childhood situations of a psychically murderous quality; for example, a nanny’s totalitarian regime may be invisible to parents ruled by collective social and cultural norms. A child who is remote from mother and idealises a father embodying a powerful patriarchal system may remain naïvely dependent in marriage and unable to cope with the realities of human aggression. The paper describes analytic work with a woman who had suffered repeated breakdowns and needed to relinquish a fragile, socially constructed identity in order to establish her own true orientation.
When culture fails: coping with cultural trauma
Authors: Gailienė Danutė
Published: August 2019

The research into the phenomenon of cultural trauma is growing as the effects of historical transformations are recognized and analysed. The concept of cultural trauma and the analytic concept of the cultural complex is a suitable theoretical approach for this research. The Lithuanian experience of cultural trauma after the historical shifts indicates the importance of the interplay between societal and individual factors in coping with trauma. Academic psychotraumatological studies carried out at Vilnius University indicate a stronger traumatic experience by people who are survivors of direct political repression and even intergenerational transmission of trauma, but this group also seems to demonstrate an intergenerational transmission of resilience. Paradoxically, from a long‐term perspective, the victims of direct repression seem to have suffered less than the people who accommodated to the regime, and this applies also to their offspring. Analysis in terms of overcoming cultural trauma indicates that society is gradually integrating historic traumatic experiences, although a healthy cultural identity has not yet been restored.
Disquiet in the consulting room: everything/nothing that is said here is confidential
Authors: Meyerowitz‐Katz Julia
Published: August 2019

Writing from experiences in the consulting room in private practice in Australia, the author refers to the layered complexity of a conflict of ethical duty which has legal and social implications. The paper explores how the ethics that are congruent with creating a safe vas bene claustrum can be diametrically opposed to the social and legal structures and processes on which we all rely. It is suggested that within the vas, analysts and analysands engage in a shared process of emotionally connected, layered, symbolic thinking. Subpoenas directed at analysts are seeking concrete evidence that will stand up in court. The paper argues that this is a category error based on ignorance and misconceptions of what analytic work entails. The intrusion of a subpoena into the vas has the potential to cause havoc in the mental health and the lives of already vulnerable, possibly traumatized and isolated individuals. It can undermine a fundamental human right and undermine the profession of psychotherapy as a whole. The paper proposes that analysts have an ethical obligation to protect the work contained within the vas from these category errors and to educate other professionals as to why we cannot provide the kind of evidence that the courts require.
Trauma, resilience and healthy and unhealthy forms of dissociation
Authors: Alayarian Aida
Published: August 2019

This paper outlines the difference between healthy and unhealthy forms of dissociation following, and in response to, traumatic experience, in particular the experience of refugees, calling on 30 years’ experience in working with refugees in voluntary and public sectors, including 20 years at the Refugee Therapy Centre, London. It differentiates dissociation from repression, and looks at some of the specific traumatic experiences associated with refugees’ displacement and situation, particularly relating to loss. Four key characteristics of resilience are described: ‘psychic space’, ‘sense of self’, and the use of a ‘listening other’ and ‘healthy dissociation/resiliency’. Two vignettes are given to illustrate the difference between healthy and unhealthy dissociation.
Sustainability Northwest: An Integrative Case of a Not‐for‐Profit Organization
Authors: Lento Camillo , Lento Paolo , Pratola Angela
Published: August 2019

Sustainability Northwest (SNW) is a fictional not‐for‐profit organization (NPO) that seeks to develop thought leaders for a sustainable future. This instructional case allows professors to assign students with up to six different roles, including SNW's chair of the board, executive director, volunteer treasurer, and the external auditor. Unique learning objectives include (i) the application of the CPA Canada Handbook, Accounting—Part III to prepare an NPO's financial statements using fund accounting, (ii) the development of recommendations to improve an NPO's board of directors, (iii) the analysis of system flow documents to identify control weaknesses, and (iv) the preparation of an audit planning memo. Instructors can use this case in several milieus. First, professors can foster a student's ability to integrate technical knowledge by (i) assigning students all six roles in a capstone course to promote integration within an individual course or (ii) assigning multiple roles across multiple courses to promote integration across a program of studies. Second, instructors can focus on a particular technical skill by assigning specific roles. This case is ideal for senior‐level undergraduate students or graduate students.
Cerebellar parcellation in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder
Authors: Laidi C. , Hajek T. , Spaniel F. , Kolenic M. , d'Albis M.‐A. , Sarrazin S. , Mangin J.‐F. , Duchesnay E. , Brambilla P. , Wessa M. , Linke J. , Polosan M. , Favre P. , Versace A. L. , Phillips M. L. , Manjon J. V. , Romero J. E. , Hozer F. , Leboyer M. , Coupe P. , Houenou J.
Published: August 2019

Objective

The cerebellum is involved in cognitive processing and emotion control. Cerebellar alterations could explain symptoms of schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD). In addition, literature suggests that lithium might influence cerebellar anatomy. Our aim was to study cerebellar anatomy in SZ and BD, and investigate the effect of lithium.

Methods

Participants from 7 centers worldwide underwent a 3T MRI. We included 182 patients with SZ, 144 patients with BD, and 322 controls. We automatically segmented the cerebellum using the CERES pipeline. All outputs were visually inspected.

Results

Patients with SZ showed a smaller global cerebellar gray matter volume compared to controls, with most of the changes located to the cognitive part of the cerebellum (Crus II and lobule VIIb). This decrease was present in the subgroup of patients with recent‐onset SZ. We did not find any alterations in the cerebellum in patients with BD. However, patients medicated with lithium had a larger size of the anterior cerebellum, compared to patients not treated with lithium.

Conclusion

Our multicenter study supports a distinct pattern of cerebellar alterations in SZ and BD.
Effect of changes in population density and crop productivity on farm households in Malawi
Authors: Komarek Adam M. , Msangi Siwa
Published: August 2019

This study examines the ex‐ante farm‐household effects of changes in family size, yield potential, and yield gaps using a farm‐household simulation model that reflects the economic and biophysical conditions of central Malawi. Disparities between growth in human population and crop yields present challenges for farm‐household crop production and income in sub‐Saharan Africa. We focus on the effect of growth in yield potential and a more efficient use of livestock manure as approaches to improving crop production and incomes in the face of looming population pressures. Our results suggest that, even without considering climate change, expected changes in population density and crop prices in 2050 mean that per person crop production and income may fall by 21% compared to 2013 values if yield potential and yield gaps remain constant. However, per person crop production and income could increase in 2050 by 8% compared to 2013 values if (1) growth rates of yield potential rise for maize by 1.13% each year and for legumes rise by at least 0.4% each year, and (2) farmers use livestock manure more efficiently. Our foresight approach to considering crop production at the farm‐household scale supplements macro‐scale analyses of the production dimension of food security.
Is public investment complementary to private investment in Indian agriculture? Evidence from NARDL approach
Authors: Akber Nusrat , Paltasingh Kirtti Ranjan
Published: August 2019

The issue of complementarity between public farm investment and private farm investment in Indian agriculture is an unsettled empirical question in the literature, which has not been studied adequately. Few studies analyzing the trends of both types of investments have produced contradictory results. Thus, this study attempts to bridge that gap, by examining the hypothesis of crowding‐in/crowding‐out effect of public sector investment on private investment. Time series data for a period of 45 years from 1971 to 2015 has been used. Adopting a ‘nonlinear auto‐regressive distributive lag’ (NARDL) model the study confirms a strong crowding‐in effect of public investment on private investment in short run, but relatively a weak complementarity between the two over long‐run. Moreover, the public canal intensity as a major component of public investment has been observed to have much stronger effect on private investment than the public investment itself. It is also found that private investment is constrained by its own lagged values, institutional credit and terms of trade during both short‐run and long‐run. The policy suggestion of this study calls for an immediate arrest of declining trend of public investment.
Editorial: real‐world short‐term effectiveness of ustekinumab in 305 patients with Crohn’s disease—results from the ENEIDA registry. Authors' reply
Authors: Iborra Marisa , Beltrán Belén , Nos Pilar
Published: August 2019

LINKED CONTENT

This article is linked to Iborra et al and Frasca and Cheifetz papers. To view these articles, visit https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.15371 and https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.15405.
Sex, age, or genetic differences related to play behaviors in Japanese Black calves
Authors: Aierqing Sarengaowa , Nakagawa Akiko , Okita Miki , Bungo Takashi
Published: August 2019

Play behavior in young animals has been used to evaluate the condition (health) of livestock. We investigated age, sex, and genetic differences of Japanese Black calves in relation to frequency of play behaviors (galloping, leaping, turning, bucking, head butting objects, and head shaking) and examined how these relationships might affect growth during the suckling stage. Locomotor play behaviors (galloping, leaping, turning, and bucking) and head butting objects gradually declined with the age for both sexes. The frequency of head butting was significantly higher in males than females. We found that significant interaction effects (age × MAOA polymorphism) in play behaviors (except head shaking) and the frequencies of locomotor play in calves without the wild‐type allele were significantly higher than those in younger calves (2 and 6 weeks of age). Weight gain was significantly correlated with the frequency of locomotor play in females, but not in males. This study suggests that play in Japanese Black calves gradually declines as they mature and that play may be controlled by variations in the MAOA gene. In addition, the frequency of locomotor play may be an indicator of health in female calves.
A pilot study of Australian pet owners who engage in social media and their use, experience and views of online pet health information
Authors: Kogan LR , Hazel SJ , Oxley JA
Published: August 2019

Objective

The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of Australian pet owners' use of the internet for pet health; how trustworthy they rate various pet health information sources and the use of online information in subsequent veterinary consultations.

Method

An anonymous questionnaire was developed, consisting of 30 questions, and distributed between March 2018 and May 2018 using convenience sampling through social media venues including Facebook and Twitter. All respondents were over the age of 18, lived in Australia and owned a pet animal.

Results

A total of 228 responses were received. The most common sources of pet health information were veterinarians (88.2%) and internet websites (81.1%). Most respondents reported using the internet ‘many times per day’ at either home or work. The majority of respondents used the internet to seek pet health information either ‘not weekly but at least once a month’ or ‘less than once a month’. Nearly half of the respondents stated that they only ‘sometimes’ discuss their online findings with their veterinarian. Approximately one half of respondents agreed with the statement that online pet health information had affected their decision about whether to take their pet to the veterinarian.

Conclusion

This study assesses how pet owners use the internet for pet health information and the role veterinarians can play in helping to facilitate these searches with tools such as information prescriptions. Further large‐scale research is needed to help further understand this increasingly important aspect of pet health.
Byssus production ability and degree of byssal‐gland development in the infaunal clam Ruditapes philippinarum
Authors: Takeuchi Seiji , Honma Kohei , Hirasaka Katsuya
Published: August 2019

Byssus production of Ruditapes philippinarum clams becomes reduced with growth. This tendency is well recognized but has not been analysed in detail. Additionally, it remains uninvestigated whether the lack of competence to produce byssus threads in the adult stage is caused by atrophy of the byssal glands or not. The objective of this study was to evaluate the byssus production ability of clams through the juvenile to adult stages and to examine the importance of two endogenous factors (i.e. shell size, somatic condition) in determining the byssus production probability (proportion of clams with byssus production in a population). This study also histologically confirmed the presence of byssal glands in juvenile to adult clams. For these purposes, field surveys to investigate the relationship among byssus production, shell size and somatic condition of clams collected from four intertidal sites and a histological study for byssal glands of the clams was conducted. This study revealed that byssus production probability decreases with increasing shell size and declining somatic condition and that the lack of byssus production is not caused by the loss of the byssal glands.
Population pharmacokinetic modelling and simulation of fremanezumab in healthy subjects and patients with migraine
Authors: Fiedler‐Kelly Jill B. , Cohen‐Barak Orit , Morris Denise N. , Ludwig Elizabeth , Rasamoelisolo Michele , Shen Honglue , Levi Micha
Published: August 2019

Aims

Fremanezumab is a fully humanized IgG2Δa/κ monoclonal antibody specific for calcitonin gene‐related peptide developed and approved for the preventive treatment of migraine in adults. The population pharmacokinetics (PK) of fremanezumab were characterized in healthy subjects and patients with chronic migraine and episodic migraine, including the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on PK variability.

Methods

Nonlinear mixed effects modelling was performed using NONMEM with data from 7 phase 1–3 clinical trials evaluating selected intravenous and subcutaneous dose regimens. The influence of covariates on fremanezumab PK was assessed and model evaluation was performed through visual predictive checks.

Results

A 2‐compartment model with first‐order absorption and elimination described the PK data well. Typical values for fremanezumab central clearance (0.0902 L/d) and central distribution volume (1.88 L) for a 71‐kg subject were consistent with previously reported values for IgG antibodies. Higher body weight was associated with increased central clearance and distribution volume. Effects of other covariates (age, albumin, renal function, sex, race, injection site, and acute, analgesic and preventive medication use for migraine) were not found to statistically significantly influence fremanezumab PK. There was no indication of reduced exposure in participants with positive anti‐drug antibody status or with mild to moderate hepatic impairment. Absolute bioavailability was estimated at 0.658.

Conclusions

A comprehensive population PK model was developed for fremanezumab following intravenous and subcutaneous administration in healthy subjects and patients with chronic migraine or episodic migraine, which will be used to further evaluate exposure–response relationships for efficacy and safety endpoints.
GDF11 contributes to hepatic hepcidin (HAMP) inhibition through SMURF1‐mediated BMP‐SMAD signalling suppression
Authors: Fang Zheng , Zhu Zesen , Zhang Haihang , Peng Yuanliang , Liu Jin , Lu Hongyu , Li Jiang , Liang Long , Xia Shenghua , Wang Qiguang , Fu Bin , Wu Kunlu , Zhang Lingqiang , Ginzburg Yelena , Liu Jing , Chen Huiyong
Published: August 2019

Hepcidin (HAMP) synthesis is suppressed by erythropoiesis to increase iron availability for red blood cell production. This effect is thought to result from factors secreted by erythroid precursors. Growth differentiation factor 11 (GDF11) expression was recently shown to increase in erythroid cells of β‐thalassaemia, and decrease with improvement in anaemia. Whether GDF11 regulates hepatic HAMP production has never been experimentally studied. Here, we explore GDF11 function during erythropoiesis‐triggered HAMP suppression. Our results confirm that exogenous erythropoietin significantly increases Gdf11 as well as Erfe (erythroferrone) expression, and Gdf11 is also increased, albeit at a lower degree than Erfe, in phlebotomized wild type and β‐thalassaemic mice. GDF11 is expressed predominantly in erythroid burst forming unit‐ and erythroid colony‐forming unit‐ cells during erythropoiesis. Exogeneous GDF11 administration results in HAMP suppression in vivo and in vitro. Furthermore, exogenous GDF11 decreases BMP‐SMAD signalling, enhances SMAD ubiquitin regulatory factor 1 (SMURF1) expression and induces ERK1/2 (MAPK3/1) signalling. ERK1/2 signalling activation is required for GDF11 or SMURF1‐mediated suppression in BMP‐SMAD signalling and HAMP expression. This research newly characterizes GDF11 in erythropoiesis‐mediated HAMP suppression, in addition to ERFE.
Therapeutic use of regulatory T cells for graft‐versus‐host disease
Authors: Elias Shlomo , Rudensky Alexander Y.
Published: August 2019

Regulatory T cells (Treg cells) represent a CD4+ T‐cell lineage that plays a critical role in restraining immune responses to self and foreign antigens and associated inflammation. Due to the suppressive function of Treg cells, inhibition or ablation of these cells can be used to boost the immunity against malignant cells. On the other hand, augmenting the activity of Treg cells can be employed for the treatment of inflammatory or autoimmune diseases and allogeneic conflicts associated with transplantation. Graft‐versus‐host disease (GvHD) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality after haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). In this review, we describe basic biological properties of Treg cells and their role in GvHD. We focus on the application of adoptive transfer of Treg cells and the therapeutic modulation of their activity for the prevention and treatment of GvHD in pre‐clinical models and in clinical settings. We also discuss the main obstacles to applying Treg cell‐based therapies for GvHD in clinical practice.
The use of item scores and response times to detect examinees who may have benefited from item preknowledge
Authors: Sinharay Sandip , Johnson Matthew S.
Published: August 2019

According to Wollack and Schoenig (2018, The Sage encyclopedia of educational research, measurement, and evaluation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 260), benefiting from item preknowledge is one of the three broad types of test fraud that occur in educational assessments. We use tools from constrained statistical inference to suggest a new statistic that is based on item scores and response times and can be used to detect examinees who may have benefited from item preknowledge for the case when the set of compromised items is known. The asymptotic distribution of the new statistic under no preknowledge is proved to be a simple mixture of two χ2 distributions. We perform a detailed simulation study to show that the Type I error rate of the new statistic is very close to the nominal level and that the power of the new statistic is satisfactory in comparison to that of the existing statistics for detecting item preknowledge based on both item scores and response times. We also include a real data example to demonstrate the usefulness of the suggested statistic.