bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Take Charge of Pain: evaluating a community‐targeted self‐management education program for people with musculoskeletal pain
Authors: Hoon Elizabeth , Smith Karen , Black Julie , Burnet Simon , Hill Catherine , Gill Tiffany K.
Published: June 2016

Issue addressed

Musculoskeletal conditions are highly prevalent, affecting 28% of the Australian population. Given the persistent nature of many musculoskeletal conditions self‐management is recognised as an important aspect of effective disease management. However, participant recruitment and retention for formal self‐management programs is a challenge.

Methods

Arthritis SA (Arthritis Foundation of South Australia, a non‐profit community health organisation) redesigned a shorter, community‐orientated self‐management education program delivered by health professionals. The program utilises aspects of the Stanford model of chronic disease self‐management and motivational interviewing as well as principles of adult learning to create an effective learning environment. The program aims to guide participants to learn and practise a range of pain management strategies that are known to be effective in improving quality of life. This study used a pre‐ and post‐test (at 6 weeks) design to determine whether this program achieved benefits in self‐reported health outcomes. Outcomes that were measured included pain, fatigue, health distress, self‐efficacy and communication.

Results

A response rate of 47% (n = 102) was achieved and small but statistically significant improvements in mean [s.d.] pain scores (6.1 [2.3] to 5.4 [2.4], P = 0.001), health distress (2.3 [1.3] to 2.0 [1.3], P = 0.002) and self‐efficacy (6.2 [2.1] to 6.8 [2.2], P = 0.002) were found.

Conclusion

Community‐based participants of this shorter, focused program recorded small but significant improvements in self‐reported pain, health distress and self‐efficacy. For those who completed the current program, Arthritis SA is currently exploring the potential of developing a booster session to promote sustainable positive health outcomes.

So what?

Supporting self‐management through education is recognised as important but also as a key challenge for effective management of musculoskeletal conditions. Using a pre‐post evaluation design, this study demonstrated effectiveness (shortterm improvements for self‐reported pain, health distress and self‐efficacy) for a redesigned and shortened communitytargeted program focusing on musculoskeletal pain.
Three-dimensional bioprinting speeds up smart regenerative medicine
Authors: Gu Qi , Zhu He , Li Jing , Li Xia , Hao Jie , Wallace Gordon G. , Zhou Qi
Published: June 2016

Biological materials can actively participate in the formation of bioactive organs and can even control cell fate to form functional tissues that we name as the smart regenerative medicine (SRM). The SRM requires interdisciplinary efforts to finalize the pre-designed organs. Three-dimensional (3D) printing, as an additive manufacturing technology, has been widely used in various fields due to its high resolution and individuation. In SRM, with the assistance of 3D printing, cells and biomaterials could be precisely positioned to construct complicated tissues. This review summarizes the state of the SRM advances and focuses in particular on the 3D printing application in biofabrication. We further discuss the issues of SRM development and finally propose some approaches for future 3D printing, which involves SRM.
The evolution of scale sensilla in the transition from land to sea in elapid snakes
Authors: Crowe-Riddell Jenna M. , Snelling Edward P. , Watson Amy P. , Suh Anton Kyuseop , Partridge Julian C. , Sanders Kate L.
Published: June 2016

Scale sensilla are small tactile mechanosensory organs located on the head scales of many squamate reptiles (lizards and snakes). In sea snakes and sea kraits (Elapidae: Hydrophiinae), these scale organs are presumptive scale sensilla that purportedly function as both tactile mechanoreceptors and potentially as hydrodynamic receptors capable of sensing the displacement of water. We combined scanning electron microscopy, silicone casting of the skin and quadrate sampling with a phylogenetic analysis to assess morphological variation in sensilla on the postocular head scale(s) across four terrestrial, 13 fully aquatic and two semi-aquatic species of elapids. Substantial variation exists in the overall coverage of sensilla (0.8–6.5%) among the species sampled and is broadly overlapping in aquatic and terrestrial lineages. However, two observations suggest a divergent, possibly hydrodynamic sensory role of sensilla in sea snake and sea krait species. First, scale sensilla are more protruding (dome-shaped) in aquatic species than in their terrestrial counterparts. Second, exceptionally high overall coverage of sensilla is found only in the fully aquatic sea snakes, and this attribute appears to have evolved multiple times within this group. Our quantification of coverage as a proxy for relative ‘sensitivity’ represents the first analysis of the evolution of sensilla in the transition from terrestrial to marine habitats. However, evidence from physiological and behavioural studies is needed to confirm the functional role of scale sensilla in sea snakes and sea kraits.
Geographical variation in the heterogeneity of mutualistic networks
Authors: Sakai Shoko , Metelmann Soeren , Toquenaga Yukihiko , Telschow Arndt
Published: June 2016

Plant–animal mutualistic networks are characterized by highly heterogeneous degree distributions. The majority of species interact with few partner species, while a small number are highly connected to form network hubs that are proposed to play an important role in community stability. It has not been investigated, however, if or how the degree distributions vary among types of mutualisms or communities, or between plants and animals in the same network. Here, we evaluate the degree distributions of pollination and seed-dispersal networks, which are two major types of mutualistic networks that have often been discussed in parallel, using an index based on Pielou's evenness. Among 56 pollination networks we found strong negative correlation of the heterogeneity between plants and animals, and geographical shifts of network hubs from plants in temperate regions to animals in the tropics. For 28 seed-dispersal networks, by contrast, the correlation was positive, and there is no comparable geographical pattern. These results may be explained by evolution towards specialization in the presence of context-dependent costs that occur if plants share the animal species as interaction partner. How the identity of network hubs affects the stability and resilience of the community is an important question for future studies.
Three-dimensional simulation for fast forward flight of a calliope hummingbird
Authors: Song Jialei , Tobalske Bret W. , Powers Donald R. , Hedrick Tyson L. , Luo Haoxiang
Published: June 2016

We present a computational study of flapping-wing aerodynamics of a calliope hummingbird (Selasphorus calliope) during fast forward flight. Three-dimensional wing kinematics were incorporated into the model by extracting time-dependent wing position from high-speed videos of the bird flying in a wind tunnel at 8.3 m s−1. The advance ratio, i.e. the ratio between flight speed and average wingtip speed, is around one. An immersed-boundary method was used to simulate flow around the wings and bird body. The result shows that both downstroke and upstroke in a wingbeat cycle produce significant thrust for the bird to overcome drag on the body, and such thrust production comes at price of negative lift induced during upstroke. This feature might be shared with bats, while being distinct from insects and other birds, including closely related swifts.
Assessing real-time Zika risk in the United States
Authors: Castro Lauren A , Fox Spencer J , Chen Xi , Liu Kai , Bellan Steve , Dimitrov Nedialko B , Galvani Alison P , Meyers Lauren Ancel
Published: June 2016

Background

Confirmed local transmission of Zika Virus (ZIKV) in Texas and Florida have heightened the need for early and accurate indicators of self-sustaining transmission in high risk areas across the southern United States. Given ZIKV’s low reporting rates and the geographic variability in suitable conditions, a cluster of reported cases may reflect diverse scenarios, ranging from independent introductions to a self-sustaining local epidemic.

Methods

We present a quantitative framework for real-time ZIKV risk assessment that captures uncertainty in case reporting, importations, and vector-human transmission dynamics.

Results

We assessed county-level risk throughout Texas, as of summer 2016, and found that importation risk was concentrated in large metropolitan regions, while sustained ZIKV transmission risk is concentrated in the southeastern counties including the Houston metropolitan region and the Texas-Mexico border (where the sole autochthonous cases have occurred in 2016). We found that counties most likely to detect cases are not necessarily the most likely to experience epidemics, and used our framework to identify triggers to signal the start of an epidemic based on a policymakers propensity for risk.

Conclusions

This framework can inform the strategic timing and spatial allocation of public health resources to combat ZIKV throughout the US, and highlights the need to develop methods to obtain reliable estimates of key epidemiological parameters.
Functional anatomy inspires recognition of EdiacaranDickinsoniaand similar fossils as Mollusca (Coleoidea) and precursors of Cambrian Nectocaridids and extant cuttlefish and squid
Authors: Cohen Bernard L.
Published: June 2016

A functional interpretation of the problematic Ediacaran fossilsPodolimurusand similar organisms such asDickinsoniaindicates that they are hitherto unrecognized members of Mollusca: Coleoidea and precursors of Cambrian Nectocaridids and of extant cuttlefish and squid. This interpretation enables a new understanding of their taphonomy and reveals how this has deceived previous attempts to understand them.
cgCorrect: A method to correct for confounding cell-cell variation due to cell growth in single-cell transcriptomics
Authors: Blasi Thomas , Buettner Florian , Strasser Michael K. , Marr Carsten , Theis Fabian J.
Published: June 2016

Motivation: Accessing gene expression at the single cell level has unraveled often large heterogeneity among seemingly homogeneous cells, which remained obscured in traditional population based approaches. The computational analysis of single-cell transcriptomics data, however, still imposes unresolved challenges with respect to normalization, visualization and modeling the data. One such issue are differences in cell size, which introduce additional variability into the data, for which appropriate normalization techniques are needed. Otherwise, these differences in cell size may obscure genuine heterogeneities among cell populations and lead to overdispersed steady-state distributions of mRNA transcript numbers.

Results: We present cgCorrect, a statistical framework to correct for differences in cell size that are due to cell growth in single-cell transcriptomics data. We derive the probability for the cell growth corrected mRNA transcript number given the measured, cell size dependent mRNA transcript number, based on the assumption that the average number of transcripts in a cell increases proportional to the cell’s volume during cell cycle. cgCorrect can be used for both data normalization, and to analyze steady-state distributions used to infer the gene expression mechanism. We demonstrate its applicability on both simulated data and single-cell quantitative real-time PCR data from mouse blood stem and progenitor cells. We show that correcting for differences in cell size affects the interpretation of the data obtained by typically performed computational analysis.

Availability: A Matlab implementation of cgCorrect is available at http://icb.helmholtz-muenchen.de/cgCorrect

Supplementary information: Supplementary information are available online. The simulated data set is available at http://icb.helmholtz-muenchen.de/cgCorrect
Biologically plausible learning in recurrent neural networks reproduces neural dynamics observed during cognitive tasks
Authors: Miconi Thomas
Published: June 2016

Neural activity during cognitive tasks exhibits complex dynamics that flexibly encode task-relevant variables. Chaotic recurrent networks, which spontaneously generate rich dynamics, have been proposed as a model of cortical computation during cognitive tasks. However, existing methods for training these networks are either biologically implausible, and/or require a continuous, real-time error signal to guide learning. Here we show that a biologically plausible learning rule can train such recurrent networks, guided solely by delayed, phasic rewards at the end of each trial. Networks endowed with this learning rule can successfully learn nontrivial tasks requiring flexible (context-dependent) associations, memory maintenance, nonlinear mixed selectivities, and coordination among multiple outputs. The resulting networks replicate complex dynamics previously observed in animal cortex, such as dynamic encoding of task features and selective integration of sensory inputs. We conclude that recurrent neural networks offer a plausible model of cortical dynamics during both learning and performance of flexible behavior.
Quantum crystallographic charge density of urea
Authors: Wall Michael E.
Published: June 2016

Standard X-ray crystallography methods use free-atom models to calculate mean unit-cell charge densities. Real molecules, however, have shared charge that is not captured accurately using free-atom models. To address this limitation, a charge density model of crystalline urea was calculated using high-level quantum theory and was refined against publicly available ultra-high-resolution experimental Bragg data, including the effects of atomic displacement parameters. The resulting quantum crystallographic model was compared with models obtained using spherical atom or multipole methods. Despite using only the same number of free parameters as the spherical atom model, the agreement of the quantum model with the data is comparable to the multipole model. The static, theoretical crystalline charge density of the quantum model is distinct from the multipole model, indicating the quantum model provides substantially new information. Hydrogen thermal ellipsoids in the quantum model were very similar to those obtained using neutron crystallography, indicating that quantum crystallography can increase the accuracy of the X-ray crystallographic atomic displacement parameters. The results demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of integrating fully periodic quantum charge density calculations into ultra-high-resolution X-ray crystallographic model building and refinement.
Isolation and evolution of labile sulfur allotropesviakinetic encapsulation in interactive porous networks
Authors: Kitagawa Hakuba , Ohtsu Hiroyoshi , Cruz-Cabeza Aurora J. , Kawano Masaki
Published: June 2016

The isolation and characterization of small sulfur allotropes have long remained unachievable because of their extreme lability. This study reports the first direct observation of disulfur (S2) with X-ray crystallography. Sulfur gas was kinetically trapped and frozen into the pores of two Cu-based porous coordination networks containing interactive iodide sites. Stabilization of S2was achieved either through physisorption or chemisorption on iodide anions. One of the networks displayed shape selectivity for linear molecules only, therefore S2was trapped and remained stable within the material at room temperature and higher. In the second network, however, the S2molecules reacted further to produce bent-S3species as the temperature was increased. Following the thermal evolution of the S2species in this network using X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy unveiled the generation of a new reaction intermediate never observed before, thecyclo-trisulfur dication (cyclo-S32+). It is envisaged that kinetic guest trapping in interactive crystalline porous networks will be a promising method to investigate transient chemical species.
Difficult conversations? Engaging patients in reducing waste in health care
Authors: Minogue Virginia , Wells Bill , Brooks Ashley
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– Reducing waste in health care can result in savings that could be used to meet the projected shortfall in NHS funding or to meet the care needs of vulnerable groups. Patients and their families can contribute to the identification and reduction of waste. To do so their understanding of the costs of health care and treatment needs to be increased. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

– The approach formed part of the Close Partnering work stream of the NHS Future Focused Finance (FFF) programme. Included in this was a review of the literature relating to waste reduction, patient engagement and reference to experts in the field of public and patient engagement. Engagement of the patient voice in the NHS FFF programme to provide the patient perspective and engage in discussions with patients. Discussions with experts in patient and public involvement and clinicians were also undertaken.

Findings

– The public and patients have little awareness of NHS finances and generally perceive efforts to reduce costs and achieve efficiencies as impacting on the quality of care. Engaging the public and patients in discussions about the costs of health care is challenging and existing methodologies for patient and public engagement may not be appropriate for what could be termed difficult conversations.

Social implications

– Increasing patient awareness of the costs of health care and treatment may result in patients and the public demanding greater involvement in decisions about health care expenditure and use of resources.

Originality/value

– Difficult conversations with patients and the public about the costs of health and their role in reducing waste are rarely invited. This paper brings to the fore the issues and challenges that such discussions engender.
Have international trade agreements been good for your health?
Authors: Birnbaum David
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to review the literature concerning impact on public health of the dispute resolution system in international trade agreements. Its purpose is to alert readers about controversial aspects of ISDS in these international agreements, aspects that are well-documented in publications likely unfamiliar to most public health professionals.

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper takes the form of a narrative review.

Findings

– While trade agreements offer potential economic benefits overall, the history thus far regarding impact on public health is worrisome. It is not difficult to find examples that deter public health from achieving important health protection regulation.

Practical implications

– There are over 3,000 existing international trade agreements with more on the horizon. New proposed agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership increase the number of countries involved; inconsistencies and lack of adequate transparency puts much at stake.

Originality/value

– It is doubtful that the global public health communities, including both public health agencies and academic public health institutions, have sufficiently been involved as stakeholders in past and pending trade agreements.
Testing the pecking order theory of deficit and surplus firms: Indian evidence
Authors: Bhama Vandana , Jain Pramod Kumar , Yadav Surendra Singh
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to test whether Indian firms follow the pecking order theory under situations of deficiency as well as surplus.

Design/methodology/approach

– The study examines Indian firms included in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) 500 index, covering a time span of ten years (2003-2012). An extended model of pecking order theory is tested for deficit and surplus firms separately. The authors use ordinary least square regressions to test the results.

Findings

– The findings indicate that the pecking order theory is an excellent descriptor for deficit firms, but a poor one for surplus firms. Deficit firms frequently issue debt to fill up deficiency requirements but keep their debt ratios in limit. In marked contrast, surplus firms have low debt to equity ratios and only occasionally redeem debt. They tend to retain funds for future expansion and other operational needs.

Research limitations/implications

– The study is limited to firms included in the BSE 500 index, but could be extended to others. Future research work could also focus on debt sub-components.

Practical implications

– The present study is useful for firms that are considering capital structure decisions and supports finding that deficit and surplus firms behave differently.

Originality/value

– This is the first study separately testing the pecking order between deficit and surplus firms in an emerging market.
Reshoring and insourcing: drivers and future research directions
Authors: Foerstl Kai , Kirchoff Jon F. , Bals Lydia
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– Reshoring and insourcing decisions have been discussed in the popular press, yet coverage of these topics in the academic literature is limited. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, it seeks to develop a more complete understanding of the underlying drivers of reshoring and insourcing decisions and their permutations. Second, it seeks to provide directions for future research to further analyze the link between drivers and outcomes of the reshoring and insourcing phenomena.

Design/methodology/approach

– This research follows a conceptual approach guided by transaction cost economics (TCE) and organizational buying behavior (OBB) theories. First, a theoretical framework of reshoring and insourcing decisions is developed. Next a comprehensive summary of reshoring and insourcing drivers is evaluated, yielding an in-depth discussion of future research directions (FRDs).

Findings

– The analysis demonstrates that the framework can be utilized to explain recent insourcing and reshoring changes of firms and to help dismantle the external and organizational challenges associated with reshoring and insourcing decision making.

Research limitations/implications

– Three FRDs are presented in the light of TCE and OBB. A fourth research direction highlights additional contextual factors outside the scope of these two theoretical lenses. These four research directions yield insightful implications for scholars and contribute to the emerging reshoring and insourcing literature.

Practical implications

– The full array of potential reshoring and insourcing permutations are structured to allow for an elaboration of their respective drivers. Moreover, enablers and obstacles in implementing the multitude of combined reshoring and insourcing decisions are highlighted and summarized as contextual variables.

Originality/value

– The concluding conceptual framework guides the evaluation of the reshoring and insourcing driver-outcome relationship across various value creation tasks and provides guidance to scholars and managers alike.
From scientific to activity based office management: a mirage of change
Authors: Parker Lee D.
Published: June 2016

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the phenomenon of activity-based working (ABW), an office design and management system that has emerged in the past 20 years. It investigates its manifest and underlying agendas with a view to determining its degree of cost management focus and scientific management foundations.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses historical and website analysis methodologies for investigating historical office management philosophies and practices, as well as contemporary office design and management philosophies and related ABW practices and discourse. These are examined through the theoretical lenses of governmentality and impression management theories.

Findings

Despite a rhetoric of staff empowerment, ABW’s dominant agenda is overhead cost reduction and operating cost management. This reflects scientific management principles of early twentieth-century office design and management. Cost efficiencies and productivity emerge as key ABW output foci. While ABW adopters and advocates present ABW as a desirable staff satisfaction and operations facilitator, the cost agenda nonetheless commands centre stage.

Research limitations/implications

Accounting research into the office and its processes is much needed. This has been largely neglected in favour of line management and factory floor costing and accountability systems. In a world dominated by service industries, the office as a centre of organisational and economic activity merits researchers’ greater attention.

Practical implications

Contemporary office design and functioning developments merit greater recourse to and acknowledgement of their historic roots. Then, practitioners can better design and implement systems that build on past knowledge and learnings. While such innovations as ABW may carry potential for improved organisational performance, care is needed with respect to their balancing of agendas and suitability for their institutional and cultural environments.

Social implications

Organisational work has become a dominant part of social life in most economies today. Such innovations as ABW must be considered in terms of the societal culture into which they are introduced: how they reflect and adapt to that culture and what impacts they may also have on the culture itself. This includes dimensions such as organisational and self-control, as well as personal and organisational accountability.

Originality/value

This study presents itself as one of the very few refereed research studies of ABW currently available in the accounting, management or property research literatures. It also represents one of the very few studies of the office in the accounting research literature internationally.
The antecedents of entrepreneurial innovative behavior in developing countries, a networked grounded theory approach (case study Iran)
Authors: Solhi Sepideh , Rahmanian Koshkaki Emadeddin
Published: June 2016

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of social and business context of developing counties (in this paper Iran) on developing, forming and exhibiting entrepreneurial innovative behaviour leading to entrepreneurship. The developed model illustrates the most important factors in forming such behaviour.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, networked grounded theory was used to develop a path model for entrepreneurial innovative behaviour antecedents based on Iranian entrepreneurial context.

Findings

This paper shows that in Iranian entrepreneurship context, innovation is sensitive to local conditions and levels of technological capabilities. Also, Iran’s situation brings another aspect of innovation in mind, innovative behaviour of individuals in forms of entrepreneurships to compensate the lack of technology in the firms.

Research limitations/implications

Due to the research approach and the quality of grounded theory, data gathering tool and sampling process, the generalizability of this paper is limited or may be context oriented; the results of this research must be interpreted within its limitation and scope.

Originality/value

This paper is the first study trying to develop a model on entrepreneurial innovative behaviour in Iran which develops a model based on the realities of Iran rather than model based on developed countries with different basis and context.
Framing the entrepreneurial university: the case of the National University of Singapore
Authors: Reyes Charisse N.
Published: June 2016

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore issues and situations affecting the entrepreneurial university via frame analysis to determine how institutional members frame the National University of Singapore (NUS) as an entrepreneurial university and provide key insights on how it has been manifested in reality.

Design/methodology/approach

Interviews of 18 institutional members from the NUS will be the focus of this paper. Categories of frames were adopted from environmental conflict research. Official documents were also analysed to support the frames found in this study.

Findings

Based on the NUS case, the entrepreneurial university was perceived in an apparently ambiguous setup. Interviewees’ framing features the reality affecting the entrepreneurial university in relation to disciplinary identities, institutional configuration, power of important actors and risk perceptions attached to entrepreneurial activities. Issues presented by the case are considered intractable because institutional members have interpretative differences in motivations and interests in pursuing entrepreneurial activities.

Research limitations/implications

Future research can draw upon the factors that contribute to the institutionalisation of the entrepreneurial university model.

Practical Implications

The results may assist universities in refining certain approaches in carrying out entrepreneurial activities. Using methods such as frame analysis can enable identification of problems and ways to resolve the issues concerning reforms or policy frameworks introduced to universities.

Originality/value

At the time of this writing, analysing the entrepreneurial university model through the application of frame analysis is novel and yet to be explored in the field of higher education.
Going through the motions
Authors: Kubovcikova Annamaria
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to test the properties of the well-known three-dimensional adjustment scale, established by Blacket al.(1988, 1989), namely, its dimensionality and internal consistency. The theoretical basis of the construct is discussed in relation to formative and reflective measurement approaches.

Design/methodology/approach

– Two different ways of organizing the adjustment items (random/non-random) were used to assess the internal consistency of the three-dimensional adjustment scale. The quantitative analysis presented is based on survey data from 468 assigned expatriates in Asia that were subjected to an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis as well as a structural equation modeling – more specifically the multiple indicators multiple causes model (MIMIC).

Findings

– The study revealed that the adjustment construct is possibly misspecified, especially the general adjustment dimension, that was tested as a formative, not a reflective scale. There is further evidence that the wrong measurement approach skewed the coefficient that connects adjustment to performance, which is the key construct in its nomological network. Moreover, the dimensionality and the internal consistency of the scale are deteriorated to a large extent by randomization of the items. The findings highlight the need for a clear concept definition that would lead to an appropriate operationalization of the construct.

Originality/value

– The study is one of the few rigorously testing the properties of a construct that has been used for almost 30 years, thus yielding some novel conclusions about its stability and consistency.
Investigating consumers’ reluctance to give up local hard drives after adopting the Cloud
Authors: E. McNeish Joanne , Francescucci Anthony , Hazra Ummaha
Published: June 2016

Purpose

The next phase of hardware technology development is focused on alternative ways to manage and store consumers’ personal content. However, even consumers who have adopted Cloud-based services have demonstrated a reluctance to move all of their personal content into the Cloud and continue to resist giving up local hard drives. This paper aims to investigate the characteristics of local hard drives and the Cloud that lead to simultaneous use.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses content analysis of online comments and ten depth interviews with simultaneous users of local hard drives and the Cloud.

Findings

Three factors influence the resistance to giving up local hard drives. Simultaneous users utilize local hard drives as a redundancy system and as a way to ensure the permanence of their digital content. They are unsure of the Cloud’s ability to support their content creation, management and storage activities (task-technology fit).

Research limitations/implications

Study findings are based on qualitative methods and thus the results cannot be considered conclusive.

Practical implications

The authors speculate that it is unlikely that Cloud-only will fully replace hard drives until these factors are understood and addressed by information technology developers. Cloud service providers may not be aware of how little that users understand the Cloud. In contrast to their certainty and confidence in local hard drives, simultaneous users are confused as to what the Cloud is and how it functions. This uncertainty exacerbates their risk perception and need for control.

Originality/value

This is the first study exploring simultaneous use of local hard drives and the Cloud with a view to understanding this behaviour in terms of the relative advantage of the incumbent technology over the new technology.
The effect of export portfolio on export earnings and risks
Authors: Kim Chong-Sup , Je Hyun-Jung
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to assess a country’s export returns and return volatility and to demonstrate that such an approach is a relevant method to predict a country’s export earnings and risks. Also to suggest important policy implications for Korea’s trade in terms of diversifying its export structure of products and destinations.

Design/methodology/approach

– The modern portfolio theory by Markowitz (1959) is applied to predict a country’s export earnings and risks. The import amount of a product, which includes aspects of both price and volume, is used as a measure of returns and return volatility and, as a result, the correlation matrix between 19 product groups covering almost all the export goods is calculated. The empirical analysis to show a strong causal relationship between expected returns and the return volatility of a country’s export portfolio and its real export earnings and risks is also made.

Findings

– This study demonstrates that the portfolio approach can be a useful method to predict export returns. Also suggests that Korea needs to change its portfolio of both export products and destinations in order to maintain more stable growth of its trade and reduce its vulnerability to an external shock.

Research limitations/implications

– The empirical tests have many limitations because they are based on simple cross-sectional models.

Practical implications

– The study shows that the modern portfolio approach to export by using prices and volume as a measure of variation in returns can predict how vulnerable a country’s export earnings is to economic shocks, and thus, provide a useful policy implication in the design of export structure and resource allocation.

Originality/value

– This study provides a new idea to predict a country’s export earnings and risks by applying the export portfolio.
Reshaping institutional arrangements for TPP ratification in Korea
Authors: Kim Jung Suk , Ko Bomin , Heo Yoon , Lee Jee Hoon
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to assess the current state of Korea’s internal negotiation system and the role of domestic policy factors in the process of Korea’s joining the mega FTAs such as Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Design/methodology/approach

– Along with Putnam’s three determinants of win-set size, the authors analyze a new set of policy factors – including Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), the FTA Domestic Planning Division, and the Trade Procedure Act – to examine the institutional arrangements available for the ratification of the TPP in Korea.

Findings

– To minimize the social cost of the internal negotiation process of the trade, better understanding of the role of domestic policy factors is essential. The paper proposes some important policy suggestions which will scale up the benefit of the trade.

Research limitations/implications

– The very same analysis can be easily extended to examine the domestic reactions for future FTA negotiation, especially for Mega FTA negotiation.

Practical implications

– The authors propose six policy suggestions: a Master Process Manual; measures to diagnose domestic reactions; emphasizing non-economic issues; strengthening human resources; considering the strategic role of the Trade Procedure Act; and reshaping TAA, to ensure that a tranquil environment exists for domestic negotiation and confirmation and the authors believe these policies can be implemented widely in trade negotiations.

Originality/value

– This paper contributes to the existing literature in at least three respects. First, the authors made the first attempt to integrate the domestic policy tools with the domestic determinants of trade negotiation outcomes. Second, the policy proposals can be extended to other countries’ cases with a minor adjustment. Finally, the analysis is based on the assumption that international trade negotiations are multi-level frameworks where domestic influences play a vital role in the aftermath of bilateral FTAs.
Overseas exporter fairness and Korean importer’s commitment
Authors: Choi Chang-Bum
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– Importer commitment is important to the improvement of exporter performance. More committed importers contribute more to the exporters’ performance than do less committed importers. The purpose of this paper is to examine one of the factors that motivate importers to be committed to their overseas exporters: exporter fairness. Specifically, this study examines the role of exporter fairness in developing importer commitment. Fairness is conceptualized as three dimensions: distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice.

Design/methodology/approach

– The relationship between the three dimensions of exporter fairness and importer commitment is empirically examined using data collected from 120 Korean importers. Partial least squares technique was employed to test the hypotheses.

Findings

– It was found that importers’ perceptions of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice contribute to increasing or decreasing importer commitment. Furthermore, when a sample of Korean importers was split into two groups, the three dimensions of justice were positively related to commitment for importers facing a highly volatile business environment, while only interactional justice significantly affected commitment for importers facing a low-volatile environment. These findings indicate that importers facing a highly volatile environment are much more sensitive to exporter fairness than are those facing a low-volatile environment.

Originality/value

– The study demonstrates that importer commitment can be developed, particularly in highly volatile environments, if vulnerable importers are treated fairly by their more powerful exporters. Volatile environments offer more opportunity for overseas exporter opportunism than stable environments do, aking importers vulnerable to the opportunistic behaviors of overseas exporters. Such importers are likely to respond sensitively to exporter fairness in the form of increased or decreased importer commitment.
Exploring LOD through metadata extraction and data-driven visualizations
Authors: Peña Oscar , Aguilera Unai , López-de-Ipiña Diego
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to present a new approach toward automatically visualizing Linked Open Data (LOD) through metadata analysis.

Design/methodology/approach

– By focussing on the data within a LOD dataset, the authors can infer its structure in a much better way than current approaches, generating more intuitive models to progress toward visual representations.

Findings

– With no technical knowledge required, focussing on metadata properties from a semantically annotated dataset could lead to automatically generated charts that allow to understand the dataset in an exploratory manner. Through interactive visualizations, users can navigate LOD sources using a natural approach, in order to save time and resources when dealing with an unknown resource for the first time.

Research limitations/implications

– This approach is suitable for available SPARQL endpoints and could be extended for resource description framework dumps loaded locally.

Originality/value

– Most works dealing with LOD visualization are customized for a specific domain or dataset. This paper proposes a generic approach based on traditional data visualization and exploratory data analysis literature.
Strategies for successful telework: how effective employees manage work/home boundaries
Authors: Basile Kelly A. , Beauregard T. Alexandra
Published: June 2016

Purpose

This paper aims to identify strategies used by successful teleworkers to create and maintain boundaries between work and home, and to determine how these strategies relate to employee preferences for segmentation or integration of work and home.

Design/methodology/approach

Forty in-depth, face-to-face interviews were conducted with employees working from home either occasionally (occasional teleworkers), between 20 and 50 per cent of the workweek (partial teleworkers), or the majority of the time (full teleworkers).

Findings

Teleworkers use physical, temporal, behavioral and communicative strategies to recreate boundaries similar to those found in office environments. Although teleworkers can generally develop strategies that align boundaries to their preferences for segmentation or integration, employees with greater job autonomy and control are better able to do so.

Research limitations/implications

A limitation of this research is its potential lack of generalizability to teleworkers in organizations with “always-on” cultures, who may experience greater pressure to allow work to permeate the home boundary.

Practical implications

These findings can encourage organizations to proactively assess employee preferences for boundary permeability before entering a teleworking arrangement. The boundary management tactics identified can be used to provide teleworkers struggling to establish comfortable boundaries with tangible ideas to regulate interactions between home and work.

Originality/value

This research makes a significant contribution to practitioner literature by applying a boundary management framework to the practice of teleworking, which is being adopted by organizations with increasing frequency.
Model‐based exposure‐response analysis to quantify age related differences in the response to scopolamine in healthy subjects
Authors: Alvarez‐Jimenez Ricardo , Groeneveld Geert Jan , van Gerven Joop M. A. , Goulooze Sebastiaan C. , Baakman Anne Catrien , Hay Justin L. , Stevens Jasper
Published: June 2016

Aim

Subjects with increasing age are more sensitive to the effects of the anti‐muscarinic agent scopolamine, which is used (among other indications) to induce temporary cognitive dysfunction in early phase drug studies with cognition enhancing compounds. The enhanced sensitivity has always been attributed to incipient cholinergic neuronal dysfunction, as a part of the normal aging process. The aim of the study was to correlate age‐dependent pharmacodynamic neuro‐physiologic effects of scopolamine after correcting for differences in individual exposure.

Methods

We applied a pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic modelling approach to describe individual exposure and neurocognitive effects of intravenous scopolamine administration in healthy subjects.

Results

A two‐compartment linear kinetics model best described the plasma concentrations of scopolamine. The estimated scopolamine population mean apparent central and peripheral volume of distribution was 2.66 ± 1.050 l and 62.10 ± 10.100 l, respectively and the clearance was 1.09 ± 0.096 l min−1. Age was not related to a decrease of performance in the tests following scopolamine administration in older subjects. Only the saccadic peak velocity showed a positive correlation between age and sensitivity to scopolamine. Age was, however, correlated at baseline with an estimated slower reaction time while performing the cognitive tests and to higher global δ and frontal θ frequency bands measured with the surface EEG.

Conclusions

Most of the differences in response to scopolamine administration between young and older subjects could be explained by pharmacokinetic differences (lower clearance) and not to an enhanced sensitivity when corrected for exposure levels.
Cardiovascular effects of urocortin 2 and urocortin 3 in patients with chronic heart failure
Authors: Stirrat Colin G. , Venkatasubramanian Sowmya , Pawade Tania , Mitchell Andrew J. , Shah Anoop S. , Lang Ninian N. , Newby David E.
Published: June 2016

Aims

Urocortin 2 and urocortin 3 may play a role in the pathophysiology of heart failure and are emerging therapeutic targets. We aimed to examine the local and systemic cardiovascular effects of urocortin 2 and urocortin 3 in healthy subjects and patients with heart failure.

Methods

Patients with heart failure (n = 8) and age and gender‐matched healthy subjects (n = 8) underwent bilateral forearm arterial blood flow measurement using forearm venous occlusion plethysmography during intra‐arterial infusions of urocortin 2 (3.6–36 pmol min−1), urocortin 3 (360–3600 pmol min−1) and substance P (2–8 pmol min−1). Heart failure patients (n = 9) and healthy subjects (n = 7) underwent non‐invasive impedance cardiography during incremental intravenous infusions of sodium nitroprusside (573–5730 pmol kg−1 min−1 ), urocortin 2 (36–360 pmol min−1 ), urocortin 3 (1.2–12 nmol min−1) and saline placebo.

Results

Urocortin 2, urocortin 3 and substance P induced dose‐dependent forearm arterial vasodilatation in both groups (P < 0.05 for both) with no difference in magnitude of vasodilatation between patients and healthy subjects. During systemic intravenous infusions, urocortin 3 increased heart rate and cardiac index and reduced mean arterial pressure and peripheral vascular resistance index in both groups (P < 0.01 for all). Urocortin 2 produced similar responses to urocortin 3, although increases in cardiac index and heart rate were only significant in heart failure (P < 0.05) and healthy subjects (P < 0.001), respectively.

Conclusion

Urocortins 2 and 3 cause vasodilatation, reduce peripheral vascular resistance and increase cardiac output in both health and disease. These data provide further evidence to suggest that urocortins 2 and 3 continue to hold promise for the treatment of heart failure.