bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Endogenous inflammatory mediators produced by injury activate TRPV1 and TRPA1 nociceptors to induce sexually dimorphic cold pain that is dependent on TRPM8 and GFRα3
Authors: Yang Chenyu , Yamaki Shanni , Jung Tyler , Kim Brian , Huyhn Ryan , McKemy David D.
Published: January 2023

The detection of environmental temperatures is critical for survival, yet inappropriate responses to thermal stimuli can have a negative impact on overall health. The physiological effect of cold is distinct among somatosensory modalities in that it is soothing and analgesic, but also agonizing in the context of tissue damage. Inflammatory mediators produced during injury activate nociceptors to release neuropeptides, such as CGRP and substance P, inducing neurogenic inflammation which further exasperates pain. Many inflammatory mediators induce sensitization to heat and mechanical stimuli but, conversely, inhibit cold responsiveness, and the identity of molecules inducing cold pain peripherally is enigmatic, as are the cellular and molecular mechanisms altering cold sensitivity. Here, we asked if inflammatory mediators that induce neurogenic inflammation via the nociceptive ion channels TRPV1 and TRPA1 lead to cold pain in mice. Specifically, we tested cold sensitivity in mice after intraplantar injection of lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) or 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (4HNE), finding each induces cold pain that is dependent on the cold-gated channel TRPM8. Inhibition of either CGRP, substance P, or toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) signaling attenuates this phenotype, and each neuropeptide produces TRPM8-dependent cold pain directly. Further, the inhibition of CGRP or TLR4 signaling alleviates cold allodynia differentially by sex. Lastly, we find that cold pain induced by inflammatory mediators and neuropeptides requires the neurotrophin artemin and its receptor GFRα3. These results demonstrate that tissue damage alters cold sensitivity via neurogenic inflammation, likely leading to localized artemin release that induces cold pain via GFRα3 and TRPM8.

Significance Statement

The cellular and molecular mechanisms that generate pain are complex with a diverse array of pain-producing molecules generated during injury that act to sensitize peripheral sensory neurons, thereby inducing pain. Here we identify a specific neuroinflammatory pathway involving the ion channel TRPM8 and the neurotrophin receptor GFRα3 that leads to cold pain, providing select targets for potential therapies for this pain modality.
The sound of restored soil: Measuring soil biodiversity in a forest restoration chronosequence with ecoacoustics
Authors: Robinson Jake M. , Breed Martin F. , Abrahams Carlos
Published: January 2023

Forest restoration requires monitoring to assess changes in above- and below-ground communities, which is challenging due to practical and resource limitations. With emerging sound recording technologies, ecological acoustic survey methods—also known as ‘ecoacoustics’—are increasingly available. These provide a rapid, effective, and non-intrusive means of monitoring biodiversity. Above-ground ecoacoustics is increasingly widespread, but soil ecoacoustics has yet to be utilised in restoration despite its demonstrable effectiveness at detecting meso- and macrofauna acoustic signals. This study applied ecoacoustic tools and indices (Acoustic Complexity Index, Normalised Difference Soundscape Index, and Bioacoustic Index) to measure above- and below-ground biodiversity in a forest restoration chronosequence. We hypothesised that higher acoustic complexity, diversity and high-frequency to low-frequency ratio would be detected in restored forest plots. We collectedn= 198 below-ground samples andn= 180 ambient and controlled samples from three recently degraded (within 10 years) and three restored (30-51 years ago) deciduous forest plots across three monthly visits. We used passive acoustic monitoring to record above-ground biological sounds and a below-ground sampling device and sound-attenuation chamber to record soil communities. We found that restored plot acoustic complexity and diversity were higher in the sound-attenuation chamber soil but notin situor above-ground samples. Moreover, we found that restored plots had a significantly greater high-frequency to low-frequency ratio for soil, but no such association for above-ground samples. Our results suggest that ecoacoustics has the potential to monitor below-ground biodiversity, adding to the restoration ecologist’s toolkit and supporting global ecosystem recovery.

Implications for Practice

This is the first known study to assess the sounds of soil biodiversity in a forest restoration context, paving the way for more comprehensive studies and practical applications to support global ecosystem recovery.

Soil ecoacoustics has the potential to support restoration ecology/biodiversity assessments, providing a minimally intrusive, cost-effective and rapid surveying tool. The methods are also relatively simple to learn and apply.

Ecoacoustics can contribute toward overcoming the profound challenge of quantifying the effectiveness (i.e., success) of forest restoration interventions in reinstating target species, functions and so-called ‘services’ and reducing disturbance.
Direct Tests of Cytochrome Function in the Electron Transport Chain of Malaria Parasites
Authors: Espino-Sanchez Tanya J. , Wienkers Henry , Marvin Rebecca G. , Nalder Shai-anne , García-Guerrero Aldo E. , VanNatta Peter E. , Jami-Alahmadi Yasaman , Blackwell Amanda Mixon , Whitby Frank G. , Wohlschlegel James A. , Kieber-Emmons Matthew T. , Hill Christopher P. , Sigala Paul A.
Published: January 2023

The mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) ofPlasmodiummalaria parasites is a major antimalarial drug target, but critical cytochrome functions remain unstudied and enigmatic. Parasites express two distinct cytchomologs (candc-2) with unusually sparse sequence identity and uncertain fitness contributions.P. falciparumcytc-2 is the most divergent eukaryotic cytchomolog currently known and has sequence features predicted to be incompatible with canonical ETC function. We tagged both cytchomologs and the related cytc1for inducible knockdown. Translational repression of cytcand cytc1was lethal to parasites, which died from ETC dysfunction and impaired ubiquinone recycling. In contrast, cytc-2 knockdown or knock-out had little impact on blood-stage growth, indicating that parasites rely fully on the more conserved cytcfor ETC function. Biochemical and structural studies revealed that both cytcandc-2 are hemylated by holocytochromecsynthase, but UV-vis absorbance and EPR spectra strongly suggest that cytc-2 has an unusually open active site in which heme is stably coordinated by only a single axial amino-acid ligand and can bind exogenous small molecules. These studies provide a direct dissection of cytochrome functions in the ETC of malaria parasites and identify a highly divergentPlasmodiumcytochromecwith molecular adaptations that defy a conserved role in eukaryotic evolution.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT

Mitochondria are critical organelles in eukaryotic cells that drive oxidative metabolism. The mitochondrion ofPlasmodiummalaria parasites is a major drug target that has many differences from human cells and remains poorly studied. One key difference from humans is that malaria parasites express two cytochromecproteins that differ significantly from each other and play untested and uncertain roles in the mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC). Our study revealed that one cytcis essential for ETC function and parasite viability while the second, more divergent protein has unusual structural and biochemical properties and is not required for growth of blood-stage parasites. This work elucidates key biochemical properties and evolutionary differences in the mitochondrial ETC of malaria parasites.
Neural dynamics in the rodent motor cortex enables flexible control of vocal timing
Authors: Banerjee Arkarup , Chen Feng , Druckmann Shaul , Long Michael A.
Published: January 2023

Neocortical activity is thought to mediate voluntary control over vocal production, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. In a highly vocal rodent, the Al-ston’s singing mouse, we investigate neural dynamics in the orofacial motor cortex (OMC), a structure critical for vocal behavior. We first describe neural activity that is modulated by component notes (approx. 100 ms), likely representing sensory feed-back. At longer timescales, however, OMC neurons exhibit diverse and often persistent premotor firing patterns that stretch or compress with song duration (approx. 10 s). Using computational modeling, we demonstrate that such temporal scaling, acting via downstream motor production circuits, can enable vocal flexibility. These results provide a framework for studying hierarchical control circuits, a common design principle across many natural and artificial systems.
Network structure influences the strength of learned neural representations
Authors: Kahn Ari E. , Szymula Karol , Loman Sophie , Haggerty Edda B. , Nyema Nathaniel , Aguirre Geoffrey K. , Bassett Dani S.
Published: January 2023

Human experience is built upon sequences of discrete events. From those sequences, humans build impressively accurate models of their world. This process has been referred to as graph learning, a form of structure learning in which the mental model encodes the graph of event-to-event transition probabilities [1], [2], typically in medial temporal cortex [3]–[6]. Recent evidence suggests that some network structures are easier to learn than others [7]–[9], but the neural properties of this effect remain unknown. Here we use fMRI to show that the network structure of a temporal sequence of stimuli influences the fidelity with which those stimuli are represented in the brain. Healthy adult human participants learned a set of stimulus-motor associations following one of two graph structures. The design of our experiment allowed us to separate regional sensitivity to the structural, stimulus, and motor response components of the task. As expected, whereas the motor response could be decoded from neural representations in postcentral gyrus, the shape of the stimulus could be decoded from lateral occipital cortex. The structure of the graph impacted the nature of neural representations: when the graph was modular as opposed to lattice-like, BOLD representations in visual areas better predicted trial identity in a held-out run and displayed higher intrinsic dimensionality. Our results demonstrate that even over relatively short timescales, graph structure determines the fidelity of event representations as well as the dimensionality of the space in which those representations are encoded. More broadly, our study shows that network context influences the strength of learned neural representations, motivating future work in the design, optimization, and adaptation of network contexts for distinct types of learning over different timescales.
Assessment of levamisole HCl and thymosin α1 in two mouse models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Authors: Borchelt David R. , Ellison Siobhan
Published: January 2023

Amyotrohpic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that causes generalized muscle weakness and atrophy. Neuropathologically, ALS is defined by severe loss of upper and lower motor neurons with a robust neuroinflammatory response. In the present study, we have examined the potential utility of two drugs that have indications as immune modulators, levamisole HCl and thymosin α1. These drugs were tested in two models models that reproduce aspects of ALS. We conducted a 14 week dosing study of these two drugs in the SOD1G93Aand Prp-TDP43A315Tmodels of ALS. The drugs were given once daily for two weeks and then every other day for 6 weeks for a total of 8 weeks of treatment. Outcome measurements included efficacy assessment on the neuromuscular phenotypes, and pathological analyses of ubiquitin load and neuro-inflammatory markers in spinal motor neurons. Neither of these drug treatments produced significant extensions in survival; however, there were changes in ubiquitin load in SOD1G93Amice that suggest the drugs could be beneficial as additions to other therapies.
Crb3 stabilizes activated Ezrin-Radixin-Moesin to organize the apical domain of multiciliated cells
Authors: Burcklé Céline , Raitière Juliette , Kodjabachian Laurent , Le Bivic André
Published: January 2023

Cell shape changes mainly rely on the remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton. Multiciliated cells (MCCs) of the mucociliary epidermis ofXenopus laevisembryos, as they mature, dramatically reshape their apical domain to grow cilia, in coordination with the underlying actin cytoskeleton. Crumbs (Crb) proteins are multifaceted transmembrane apical polarity proteins known to recruit actin linkers and promote apical membrane growth. Here, we identify the homeolog Crb3.L as an important player for apical domain morphogenesis in differentiatingXenopusMCCs. We found that Crb3.L is initially present in cytoplasmic vesicles in the vicinity of ascending centrioles/basal bodies (BBs), then at the expanding apical membrane concomitantly with BB docking, and finally in the ciliary shaft of growing and mature cilia. Using morpholino-mediated knockdown, we show that Crb3.L-depleted MCCs display a complex phenotype associating reduction in the apical surface, disorganization of the apical actin meshwork, centriole/BB migration defects, as well as abnormal ciliary tuft formation. Based on prior studies, we hypothesized that Crb3.L could regulateEzrin-RadixinMoesin (ERM) protein subcellular localization in MCCs. Strikingly, we observed that endogenous phospho-activated ERM (pERM) is recruited to the growing apical domain of inserting MCCs, in a Crb3.L-dependent manner. Our data suggest that Crb3.L recruits and/or stabilizes activated pERM at the emerging apical membrane to allow coordinated actin-dependent expansion of the apical membrane in MCCs.
The crystal structure of the selenide-based synthetic sulfosalt CuPbSb3Se6
Authors: Sicher Paul , Stöger Berthold
Published: January 2023

Single crystals of copper lead triantimony hexaselenide, CuPbSb3Se6, were obtained as a minor phase during systematic studies of the formation conditions of selenide-based sulfosalts. The crystal structure is an unusual representative of the family of sulfosalts. Instead of the expected galena-like slabs with octahedral coordination, it features mono and double-capped trigonal–prismatic (Pb), square-pyramidal (Sb) and trigonal–bipyramidal (Cu) coordination. All metal positions are occupationally and/or positionally disordered.
Crystal structure reinvestigation of silver(I) fluoride, AgF
Authors: Lozinšek Matic , Belak Vivod Matic , Dragomir Mirela
Published: January 2023

A crystal structure reinvestigation of AgF based on a low-temperature high-resolution single-crystal X-ray diffraction data is reported. Silver(I) fluoride crystallizes in the rock salt structure type (Fm\overline{3}m) with a unit-cell parameter of 4.92171 (14) Å at 100 K, resulting in an Ag—F bond length of 2.46085 (7) Å.
Solar energy for the airport ground support equipment – a quantitative study
Authors: Yıldız Melih , Mutlu Savaş , Nagy Andras , Kale Utku
Published: January 2023

Purpose

This paper aims to evaluate the hypothetical situation in a resembling airport to Esenboga Airport and analyzes the condition of all ground support equipment (GSE) equipment to be supplied by electricity produced by solar panels mounted on the rooftop of the terminal building. The case is discussed using environmental emissions and economic feasibility. The results of the resembling case can be generalized to all airports for the reduction of emissions caused by ground operations of aviation.

Design/methodology/approach

GSE fleet data which has been prepared by TGS operated in the Esenboğa Airport have been used to calculate emissions, and equivalent electricity consumption. A hypothetical solar panel construction on the rooftop of the terminal building and also the electricity production case was analyzed. Based on the calculations, both fuel and electricity use cases are compared by means of emissions and production costs using real data.

Findings

The electricity production and transmission pose a high value of emissions. Thus, electrification of GSE in the airport need a new approach such as producing the electric energy in the site. This research analyzes the case that the electricity is produced on the rooftop of terminal building and consumed by the GSE fleet. The authors discussed that it is both feasible and possible to electrify all the GSE except a shortage of two cold months with high fuel demand by using electric storage options.

Practical implications

Ground handling is performed by using GSE which is historically powered by diesel and such internal combustion engines which are well known for their high emission rates. As most of the airports reside in populated areas, GSE emissions need to be evaluated for reduction. However the electric energy could be an alternative for GSE emissions reduction

Originality/value

Aviation is a system of many subsystems in which the performance of each unit plays a crucial role in the final success of the system. Concerns on environmental protection make the aviation industry focus on reducing emissions produced during operations. Although aircraft emissions are widely discussed in the literature, ground handling systems which are an integral part of the whole aviation system, also need to be studied regarding the environmental issues. Besides, the European Union has set out targets of reducing emissions at the airports during ground operations to zero. This paper discusses the possibility of the target by comparing various scenarios
The moderating role of perceived trust and perceived value on online shopping behavioral intention of Palestinian millennials during COVID-19
Authors: Baidoun Samir D. , Salem Mohammed Z.
Published: January 2023

Purpose

The paper aims to examine the moderating role of both the perceived value and perceived trust in the relationship between the ease of use, perceived risk, perceived usefulness and quality of website and the Palestinian millennials’ behavioral intention toward online shopping.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey questionnaire was carried out targeting 357 Palestinian millennials. In total, 311 valid responses were processed and analyzed using PLS-SEM model fitting approach.

Findings

The findings demonstrate that the impact of ease of use, perceived usefulness and website quality on online shopping behavioral intention are reinforced by perceived value and perceived trust, while the effect of perceived risk is weakened. This implies that improving convenience and lowering non-monetary costs such as time and effort will enhance the customers’ perceived value and, as a result, their shopping behavioral intention. In addition, one of the most significant barriers to online shopping is a lack of trust. Therefore, once trust is established, shopping willingness rises, and vice versa.

Research limitations/implications

As this study focused on consumers from a developing country, it neglected the cross-cultural issue; thus, future studies may have to make a comparison of other samples from various nations to gain a deeper understanding. Furthermore, this research focused on the ease of use, perceived risk, perceived usefulness and perceived quality of the website to predict the customer’s behavioral intention toward online shopping, which shows significant results, indicating that more research is needed to look at these independent variables as predictors of customers purchasing decision.

Practical implications

Online shopping is a critical topic that has significant impact on the business world. Investigating the moderating role of perceived trust and perceived value on Palestinian millennials’ online shopping behavioral intention during COVID-19 might give useful information for organizations developing policies and strategies to create direct sales using social media platforms. Furthermore, the findings might also be valuable for management studies and academics to better understand consumers’ intentions when it comes to commercial internet buying.

Originality/value

The empirical nature of this paper gives a thorough explanation of the phenomena of online shopping from a developing country. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study that examines the moderating effect of perceived trust and perceived value on Palestinian millennials’ online shopping behavioral intention during COVID-19.
Experiences of conflict, non-acceptance and discrimination are associated with poor mental well-being amongst LGBTQ-identified individuals in Singapore
Authors: Toh Gerard W. , Koh Wee Ling , Ho Jack , Chia Jackson , Maulod Ad , Tirtajana Irene , Yang Peter , Lee Mathia
Published: January 2023

Purpose

Health disparities affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) populations have been reported in many countries. For Singapore, no large quantitative studies on mental health and well-being in the local LGBTQ community have been published. The authors conducted a community-based survey (National LGBT Census Singapore, 2013; NLCS2013) that covered a comprehensive set of demographic, social and health indicators. Here, the authors investigated mental health status and its correlates in 2,350 LGBTQ individuals within the NLCS2013 sample.

Design/methodology/approach

The NLCS2013 was an anonymous online survey conducted amongst self-identified LGBTQ adults (aged ≥ 21 years) residing in Singapore. The survey included the World Health Organisation Well-being Index (WHO-5) as a measure of mental well-being, with low WHO 5 scores (<13/25) indicating poor mental well-being. The authors analysed relationships between low WHO-5 score and a range of respondent characteristics using multivariate logistic regression.

Findings

Strikingly, 40.9% of 2,350 respondents analysed had low WHO-5 scores, indicating poor mental well-being. Parental non-acceptance, experience of conflict at home and bullying/discrimination in the workplace or educational environments were all significantly associated with poor mental well-being. Conversely, community participation appeared protective for mental well-being, as respondents who participated in LGBTQ community organisations or events were less likely to have poor mental well-being than non-participants.

Originality/value

The NLCS2013 represents one of the first broad-based efforts to comprehensively and quantitatively capture the sociodemographic and health profile, including mental health status, within Singapore’s resident LGBTQ population. These findings affirm the need to address the mental health needs of LGBTQ individuals in Singapore and to foster safe spaces and allyship.
The flow and heat in the conical region of a rotating cone and an expanding disk
Authors: Turkyilmazoglu Mustafa
Published: January 2023

Purpose

The fluid flow and heat transfer between a rotating cone above a stretching disk is the prime purpose of the current work. Making use of suitable similarity transformations, it is shown that the physical phenomenon is represented by a system of similarity equations, which is compatible with that of literature in the absence of wall expansion.

Design/methodology/approach

Numerical simulation of the system enables us to seize the physical character of fluid filling the conical section as well as of the heat transfer, from small to adequately large gap sizes. How the surface expansion will contribute to the momentum and thermal layers; moreover, to the swirl angle from the disk wall, and heat transports from the cone and disk surfaces is studied in detail.

Findings

The results are clear evidences that the wall stretching completely changes the flow and heat behaviors within the conical gap. For instance, the centripetal/centrifugal flow properties of disk/cone are completely altered and the flow swirling angles are increased by means of the wall deformation.

Originality/value

The original value is that at small gap angles faster expansion of the wall overall leads to near-disk surface cooling, while causing the heated region near the cone surface, which has physical implications in practical applications.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on business-to-business relationships in digital ecosystems: an African perspective
Authors: Antai Imoh , Eze Nonyelum Lina
Published: January 2023

Purpose

In the African context, the threat of the disruption of traditional business value-creation processes, currently facilitated by the growing information technology (IT) ecosystem, came with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Thus, this paper aims to investigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on interfirm relationships within the context of the digital ecosystem in Africa.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employs an explanatory–exploratory qualitative approach from an interpretivist stance to investigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on interfirm relationships. The authors conducted seven in-depth interviews with top management executives in a Nigerian technology company, together with the company's archival data that provided the pre, during and post pandemic (2018–2021) business-to-business (B2B) relationship structures, to determine how these relationships have been affected.

Findings

The results suggest that the pandemic had a minimal effect on partnership relationships in the B2B ecosystems of the case company but affected only non-partnership relationships.

Research limitations/implications

The authors' qualitative study is interpretive and the sample size is limited. Hence, there is a need for caution in generalizing the findings. The framework can be further validated across a wider population.

Practical implications

Partnerships can help organizations weather business crises. Consequently, organizations should maintain a healthy number of partnership relations to deal with periods in which challenges emerge in the business landscape. In other words, with tight contracts and a strategic focus on goals and objectives, partnership relations can help organizations weather business crises.

Originality/value

This study builds upon the burgeoning body of literature on digital ecosystems within the African context, which is a relevant contextual contribution.
Techniques to strengthen entrepreneurship: is mindfulness a useful concept for resilience development?
Authors: Aránega Alba Yela , Castaño Sánchez Rafael , Ribeiro-Navarrete Samuel
Published: January 2023

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to increase the resilience capacity of residential health-care professionals to achieve intrapreneurial development in workers. Through training based on the development of emotional competencies and the application of mindfulness techniques, the aim is for the individual to become aware of his or her role, learn to manage emotions and reduce feelings of distress and anxiety.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed programme has a duration of eight weeks. Every four days of training, mindfulness sessions are integrated, and at the beginning and end of the working day, 10 min are spent with superiors to give feedback on what happened during the day and the setting of new objectives. A control group is also established where they do not undergo such training. After the delivery of the programme, the results obtained after the application of the methodology to a sample of 91 residential health-care professionals are presented. By means of a validated resilience questionnaire composed of 25 items, the aim is to measure the resilience capacity of the participants before and after training and to observe the impact of the programme.

Findings

The results of this study show that the training has led to an improvement in the overall resilience capacity by 3.93% and has been able to reduce the existing gap between those over 45 years of age and younger people, although the age-related variable still represents a significant difference.

Originality/value

This study provides an innovative way of fostering entrepreneurship. While participants work on resilience management through mindfulness techniques, organisational commitment is achieved.
Barriers to information and digital technology adoption in humanitarian supply chain management: a fuzzy AHP approach
Authors: Kabra Gaurav , Ramesh Anbanandam , Jain Vipul , Akhtar Pervaiz
Published: January 2023

Purpose

The humanitarian supply chain (HSC) area is rich with conceptual frameworks with a focus on the importance of information and digital technology (IDT) applications. These frameworks have a limited scope in investigating and prioritizing barriers to IDT adoption in HSCs. The present study thus identifies and prioritizes the barriers to IDT adoption in organizations involved in HSCs.

Design/methodology/approach

By using a literature review allied with expert discussions and a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (F-AHP), the study identifies and prioritizes a comprehensive set of barriers that organizations involved in HSCs may consider to improve IDT adoption.

Findings

The study investigates five main barriers (strategic, organizational, technological, financial and human) interlocked with 25 sub-barriers impacting the level of IDT adoption in organizations involved in HSCs. The findings indicate that strategic barriers (SBs) are of greatest importance, followed by organizational, technological, financial and human barriers. The findings indicate the difference in ranking barriers influencing the adoption of IDTs in HSCs compared to the commercial supply chain.

Research limitations/implications

Although a three-step method adopted for this study is rigorous in terms of the way this research is conducted, it is essential to report that prioritization is based on the subjective opinions of the experts.

Practical implications

The findings aim to assist policymakers and practitioners in developing effective strategies to improve IDT adoption in organizations engaged in HSCs. Moreover, the prioritization of barriers provides a systematic way to overcome any barriers to improve HSC performance.

Originality/value

This study is first of its kind that investigates and prioritizes the barriers to IDT adoption in HSCs.
A systematic literature review of food banks’ supply chain operations with a focus on optimization models
Authors: Rivera Adrian Fernando , Smith Neale R. , Ruiz Angel
Published: January 2023

Purpose

Food banks play an increasingly important role in society by mitigating hunger and helping needy people; however, research aimed at improving food bank operations is limited.

Design/methodology/approach

This systematic review used Web of Science and Scopus as search engines, which are extensive databases in Operations Research and Management Science. Ninety-five articles regarding food bank operations were deeply analyzed to contribute to this literature review.

Findings

Through a systematic literature review, this paper identifies the challenges faced by food banks from an operations management perspective and positions the scientific contributions proposed to address these challenges.

Originality/value

This study makes three main contributions to the current literature. First, this study provides new researchers with an overview of the key features of food bank operations. Second, this study identifies and classifies the proposed optimization models to support food bank managers with decision-making. Finally, this study discusses the challenges of food bank operations and proposes promising future research avenues.
Coworker abuse in healthcare: voices of mistreated workers
Authors: Evans W. Randy , Mullen Deborah M. , Burke-Smalley Lisa
Published: January 2023

Purpose

The appalling abuse healthcare workers have endured from patients is long documented in the popular press and social media. Less explored in the healthcare management literature is workplace abuse that professional nurses experience from their coworkers.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use text-based first-hand accounts from nurses posting on Reddit (N = 75) to better understand the types and context of abusive acts endured by their coworkers in the contemporary healthcare setting. Each account is content analyzed using two raters, and thematic analysis is utilized to summarize findings.

Findings

Findings indicate that nurse workplace abuse frequently targets new entrants to a work unit (e.g. recent grads), typically is ongoing, takes verbal and nonverbal forms, mainly stems from coworkers (i.e. lateral mistreatment), and frequently takes place in front of other coworkers, mainly in hospital settings.

Practical implications

By applying the lens of mindfulness, healthcare organizations can transform these harmful interactions within the nursing profession. The authors offer administrators and frontline workers practical implications for mitigating workplace abuse, including reshaping the culture, bystander interventions and explicit leadership support.

Originality/value

First-hand accounts from nurses in the frontlines of healthcare provide a rich voice that reveals the reality of ongoing verbal and nonverbal peer abuse in hospitals and healthcare settings.
Foreign exploration of immature markets and incidence of money laundering
Authors: Hanif Nadia , Javaid Anam , Arshed Noman , Rafay Abdul
Published: January 2023

Purpose

Money laundering (ML) is the process used to convert the proceeds of crimes into lawful form. This global problem promotes social ills, corruption and organized crimes. Various instruments are used to counter individual illicit behavior. However, in low-income countries, these regulations are not common because of weak institutions, poor governance and a lack of awareness about the negative consequences of ML. In these countries, multinational corporations take advantage of poor law and order, lower environmental regulations and corruption and shift their domestic operations into foreign countries.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a multiple mediator model to investigate the link between foreign direct investment (FDI), environmental degradation measured as CO2 emissions (CE), exports and ML for 118 countries between 2008 to 2018.

Findings

Results indicate that FDI promotes exports and CE, leading to illicit financial flows.

Originality/value

Policymakers should enforce checks on foreign funds flow and adopt illicit flow mitigation measures to minimize ML globally.
Effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccination on travel intentions: case of Iran
Authors: Qezelbash Amir Hossein , Makian Sarasadat , Shahabi Sorman Abadi Rasoul
Published: January 2023

Purpose

This paper aims to examine tourists' behavioral changes in response to health crises, this study examines the individual's uncertainty and adaptability to the challenges using behavioral coping strategies.

Design/methodology/approach

The study combines the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and protection motivation theory. Using the PLS-SEM technique, this study examines the relationship between the destination's competitive profits and travel intention of Iranian tourists in the post-Covid-19 pandemic.

Findings

The social-support coping (Instrumental) does not incorporate tourists' adaptive behaviors. Vulnerable vaccination significantly affects the extremeness of an individual's problem-focused coping, which affects tourist's adaptive behaviors in crisis time, indicating the effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccination on travel intention.

Research limitations/implications

The findings may assist tourism authorities and planners develop unique tourism products and services based on tourist behavior following the health crises.

Originality/value

This study contributes to development of the TPB method, indicating that visa exemption and competitive profits of a destination would motivate travel intention existing inefficacy of local government and its negative background, reshaping and thus influencing changing behavior.
The mediating effect of psychological resilience in the impact of increasing job insecurity with the pandemic, on organizational commitment and turnover intention
Authors: Akçin Kültigin
Published: January 2023

Purpose

This study aims to examine how new and senior employees' perceptions of job insecurity affect their commitment and turnover intention in the economic crisis environment created by the pandemic and whether their psychological resilience has a mediating effect on this effect.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey data were collected from 147 novices (tenure < five years) and 160 seniors (tenure > five years) full-time employees from three different industries to examine these relationships using the SPSS program and the process add-on.

Findings

The results showed that perceptions of job insecurity were negatively correlated with affective commitment, normative commitment and psychological resilience and positively correlated with continuance commitment and turnover intention for both employee groups. While psychological resilience played an expected mediating effect for novices in the organization, it played only a mediating effect for affective and normative commitment for seniors.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the field of management psychology by investigating, for the first time, the negative impact of the perception of job insecurity, which has increased with the pandemic, and the mediating effect of psychological resilience in this effect.
Non-fungible tokens (NFT): a safe and effective way to prevent plagiarism in scientific publishing
Authors: Saeidnia Hamid Reza , Lund Brady D.
Published: January 2023

Purpose

There is a need for technology that can protect scientific findings as a unique asset but is this possible? Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are one possible solution.

Design/methodology/approach

Plagiarism is an unethical act and a violation of acceptable practices in the field of scholarly research and writing. Over the years, effective tools have been created to prevent and minimize plagiarism, especially through the integration of artificial intelligence technology to identify copied text. However, there is still scientific plagiarism of contents (such as articles, inventions or other digital objects).

Findings

NFTs are unique digital identifiers that use blockchain technology to ensure ownership rights of an object are maintained. NFT is a blockchain derivative that first entered the world of digital currencies and has now entered other areas, such as economy, fashion, music and computer games.

Originality/value

In this essay, how this technology may be useful to preventing acts of academic plagiarism is discussed.
Institutional investment horizon and corporate technological diversification
Authors: Choi Mincheol , Na Jaeseog
Published: January 2023

Purpose

Although investigating the factors influencing technological diversification is essential to understanding research and development (R&D) strategies, studies from the perspective of corporate ownership structure are limited. This study examines the effect of heterogeneous institutional investors on technological diversification strategies.

Design/methodology/approach

The sample consists of 33,124 firm-year observations of USA manufacturing firms from 1981 to 2008. Data were extracted from US Patent Data, Thomson Reuters' 13f and the Compustat database. A panel regression analysis was used to test the hypothesis. Moreover, the two-stage least squares (2SLS) approach using instrumental variables (IVs) and generalized method of moments (GMM) were also applied to address the endogeneity issue.

Findings

The empirical findings indicate that short-term (long-term) institutional investors positively (negatively) affect technological diversification. That is, short-term institutional ownership hampers R&D diversification, suggesting that firms are forced to make myopic investments to meet short-term goals instead of diversifying corporate R&D projects. Meanwhile, long-term institutional ownership enhances technological diversification to achieve long-term value.

Research limitations/implications

By differentiating between institutional investment horizons, the authors produce empirical evidence that institutional investors with short-term and long-term perspectives have different views on technological diversification. This study is based on data between 1981 and 2008, due primarily to patent data availability and data on institutional investors. However, this limitation does not diminish the importance of the empirical findings, as the study's focus is on discovering antecedent evidence of corporate technological diversification rather than addressing recent trends in firm decisions.

Practical implications

In finding that long-term institutional investors are likely to encourage technological diversification at firms, the paper carries an important practical implication that can help inform decision-making by policymakers and investors.

Originality/value

This research contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of institutional investors' role in technological diversification strategies. Additionally, by challenging the assumption that all institutional owners share the same perspective, this study is the first to confirm the existence of heterogeneous effects of institutional investors on technological diversification strategies.
Hydro-thermo-fluidic aspects of Oldroyd B fluid with hybrid nanostructure subject to low and moderate Prandtl numbers
Authors: Gope Rajib , Nayak Manoj Kumar , Shaw Sachin , Mondal Sabyasachi
Published: January 2023

Purpose

The major goal of this article is to investigate flow and thermal aspects of Oldroyd B with hybrid nanostructure subject to a radially stretched surface under the influence of low and moderate Prandtl numbers.

Design/methodology/approach

The non-dimensional governing equations are solved considering BVP4C in MATLAB as instrumental.

Findings

Entropy generation effect is analyzed. Radial velocity and entropy generation exhibit opposite effect in response to amplified relaxation and retardation time parameters in case of both low and moderate Prandtl numbers. Augmented relaxation and retardation time parameters controls heat transfer rate.The results show that increasing the aspect ratio increases both the average Nusselt and entropy generation numbers for each value of the Prandtl number, while increasing the prandtl number decreases both. There is also a minimum value for the entropy generation number at a given relaxation and retardation parameter.

Research limitations/implications

Assume that the Oldroyd B fluid is dispersed with hybrid nanostructure in order to ameliorate thermal conductivity of Oldroyd B fluid so as to make it as best coolant.

Practical implications

The low range of Prandtl number comprising particles of air, gas, etc. and moderate range of Prandtl number comprising particles of honey, thin motor oil, or any non-Newtonian liquid. The hybrid nanofluid is radiative in nature. Also, the effects of significant physical parameters on entropy generation are highlighted. The entropy generation number intensifies due to the rise in temperature difference parameter at low/moderate Prandtl number effectively. Entropy minimization can lead to the amelioration of available energy thereby enhances the efficiency of several thermal systems.

Originality/value

This article's primary goal is to investigate the flow and thermal aspects of Oldroyd B with a hybrid nanostructure subject to a radially stretched surface under the influence of low and moderate Prandtl numbers.
Destination branding through social media: juxtaposition of foreign influencer’s narratives and state’s presentation on the event of Pakistan Tourism Summit 2019
Authors: Nazir Farhad
Published: January 2023

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to discern the underlying dimensions of destination branding and social media in the socio-geographical context of Pakistan. The study while selecting an event – Pakistan Tourism Summit 2019 – has explored the narratives of foreign social media influencers (SMIs). These narratives and content of tourism website of Pakistan have been comparatively analyzed to disentangle the voluntary and involuntary branding eventualities.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative research strategy has been adopted. Using the interface of NVivo 12, thematic analysis on the narratives of foreign influencers and content of tourism website has been performed. Eventually, influencer’s videos and website’s content have been transcribed and integrated into inductive themes.

Findings

The findings implies that multiple halt points exist in tourism branding of Pakistan. Stigmatized image as a dangerous place for visitation, superficial/exaggerated branding by the influencers, colonial mindset to marginalize the domestic influencers, domestic branding through foreign influencers and veiled tourism potential are the various dimensions emerged during analysis phase.

Research limitations/implications

Given the limitations of the qualitative research approach, the current study lacks statistical avenues of quantitative or mix-method studies. Selection of a single event and website further limits this study and calls for the necessity of future studies having wider units of data collection and other portals of social media.

Practical implications

For policy makers, academia and supply sector, this study offers touchpoints to be emphasized in the strategic, legal and theoretical fronts of destination branding.

Originality/value

Despite the hegemony of SMIs in destination branding, there is scarcity of research on the paybacks of such branding campaigns. This endeavor in response to this call, accentuated the destination branding via foreign social media activists regarding the tourism potential of Pakistan. Findings provides novel insights and branding ethos deemed necessary to be considered in destination branding strategies/campaigns.