bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
New Labor History in Sub-Saharan Africa: Colonial Enslavement and Forced Labor
Authors: Rockel Stephen J.
Published: November 2014

African labor history is undergoing a resurgence judging by the appearance of these three important books. During the 1990s and into the early twenty-first century, historians working in East, West, and southern Africa published a remarkable number of first-rate histories of migrant laborers, rural workers, and the emerging urban working class, notably in the innovative Heinemann Social History of Africa series founded by Allen Isaacman and Jean Hay. Other historians published fine works elsewhere. Labor history of all kinds flourished. However, with new academic trends and the demise of the Social History series in the mid-2000s, African labor history seems to have entered a decline, although studies of precolonial slavery have continued to appear regularly. It is therefore gratifying to see a number of new labor histories published in the last two or three years.
China Scholars and the Media: Improving an Awkward, Important Relationship
Authors: Sullivan Jonathan
Published: November 2014

Public interest in China, as reflected in the level of media attention, is burgeoning in the West and elsewhere in the world. This interest is driven by China's increasing presence and importance in the lives of people around the world; and for the same reason is likely to continue growing. Since media discourses are the main way in which Western publics receive information about China, contributing to media reports and helping journalists reach deeper understandings is an important task and opportunity for academics whose specialist knowledge of China is often more nuanced than that of generalist China correspondents. Although developments in the two professions are demanding closer and more frequent interactions, many scholars are reluctant to engage. This is partly due to structural disincentives within the academy, and partly due to obstacles in the scholar–media relationship. Focusing on the latter, the objective of this article is to illuminate how China scholars and journalists currently interact, and to identify means to increasing their efficiency and sustainability.
Chiral nematic cellulose–gold nanoparticle composites from mesoporous photonic cellulose
Authors: Schlesinger Maik , Giese Michael , Blusch Lina K. , Hamad Wadood Y. , MacLachlan Mark J.
Published: November 2014

Nearly monodisperse gold nanoparticles with chiroptical properties are prepared by thein situreduction of Au3+inside mesoporous photonic cellulose.
Density functional theory calculations of Rh-β-diketonato complexes
Authors: Conradie J.
Published: November 2014

Density functional theory results on the geometry, energies and charges of selected Rh-β-diketonato reactants, products and transition states.
Catalytic depolymerisation of isolated lignins to fine chemicals using a Pt/alumina catalyst: part 1—impact of the lignin structure
Authors: Bouxin Florent P. , McVeigh Ashley , Tran Fanny , Westwood Nicholas J. , Jarvis Michael C. , Jackson S. David
Published: November 2014

Catalytic depolymerisation of lignins with different β-O-4 linkage percentages affected both the yield and the nature of aromatic monomeric products.
Simultaneous three-dimensional temperature and velocity field measurements using astigmatic imaging of non-encapsulated thermo-liquid crystal (TLC) particles
Authors: Segura Rodrigo , Rossi Massimiliano , Cierpka Christian , Kähler Christian J.
Published: November 2014

TLC thermography and APTV for simultaneous time-resolved 3D temperature and velocity measurements in microflows.
Tunable dielectric constant of polyimide–barium titanate nanocomposite materials as the gate dielectrics for organic thin film transistor applications
Authors: Yu Yang-Yen , Liu Cheng-Liang , Chen Yung-Chih , Chiu Yu-Cheng , Chen Wen-Chang
Published: November 2014

Polyimide (PI)–BaTiO3 (BT) NPs hybrid nanocomposite dielectrics with tunable BT loadings (X) were fabricated for investigating their properties on the pentacene organic thin film transistors (OTFTs).
Synthesis, characterization and properties of a bio-based elastomer: polymyrcene
Authors: Sarkar Preetom , Bhowmick Anil K.
Published: November 2014

Bio-based elastomer from renewable resources.
Syntheses, crystal structures, photoluminescent/magnetic properties of four new coordination polymers based on 2,3′,4,5′-biphenyltetracarboxylic acid
Authors: Qiao Jin-Zhong , Zhan Mao-Sheng , Hu Tuo-Ping
Published: November 2014

Complex 1 is a (4,10)-connected deh1 net. Both complexes 2 and 4 exhibit (4,4)-connected mog moganite nets and novel (3,4,4)-connected networks respectively. Complex 3 is a 3D supermolecular net assembled by 1D anionic chains and cationic chains.
Palladium nanoparticles supported on natural nanozeolite clinoptilolite as a catalyst for ligand and copper-free C–C and C–O cross coupling reactions in aqueous medium
Authors: Baghbanian Seyed Meysam , Yadollahy Horieh , Tajbakhsh Mahmood , Farhang Maryam , Biparva Pourya
Published: November 2014

Pd0-nanoparticles supported on natural nanozeolite were synthesized and applied as a catalyst for the Sonogashira and Ullmann condensation coupling reactions.
A facile and novel approach for preparing monodispersed hollow aluminosilica microspheres with thin shell structures
Authors: Li Xuan-Hua , Zhang Yong-Xing , Liu Zhong-Liang , Liu Qin-Zhuang , Li Bing , Zhu Guang-Ping , Dai Kai
Published: November 2014

Monodispersed hollow aluminosilica microspheres with thin shell structures have been successfully synthesized via a facile, novel method.
Distributed Luby transform coding for three‐source single‐relay networks based on the deconvolution of robust soliton distribution
Authors: Shao Hanqin , Xu Dazhuan , Zhang Xiaofei
Published: November 2014

The distributed Luby transform (LT) coding is investigated for the multisource networks, especially with three sources. Based on the three‐source single‐relay network model, the authors propose a threefold deconvolution method of the robust soliton distribution (RSD). The deconvolved distribution is used at each source, and a simple and feasible combining algorithm is developed for re‐encoding at the relay. Such a modified LT code with three sources (MLT‐3) is constructed. Simulation results verify that the overall degree distribution of the proposed MLT‐3 codes agrees well with the RSD. The performance of MLT‐3 codes is evaluated and compared with other coding schemes. Simulations reveal that MLT‐3 codes have similar behaviour with the two‐source or four‐source distributed LT codes and the benefits are observed in comparison with the separate LT codes. Simulations also show that MLT‐3 codes exhibit good performance on various erasure channels.
Defect detection in slab surface: A novel dual charge-coupled device imaging-based fuzzy connectedness strategy
Authors: Zhao Liming , Ouyang Qi , Chen Dengfu , Udupa Jayaram K. , Wang Huiqian , Zeng Yuebin
Published: November 2014

To provide an accurate surface defects inspection system and make the automation of robust image segmentation method a reality in routine production line, a general approach is presented for continuous casting slab (CC-slab) surface defects extraction and delineation. The applicability of the system is not tied to CC-slab exclusively. We combined the line array CCD (Charge-coupled Device) traditional scanning imaging (LS-imaging) and area array CCD laser three-dimensional (3D) scanning imaging (AL-imaging) strategies in designing the system. Its aim is to suppress the respective imaging system's limitations. In the system, the images acquired from the two CCD sensors are carefully aligned in space and in time by maximum mutual information-based full-fledged registration schema. Subsequently, the image information is fused from these two subsystems such as the unbroken 2D information in LS-imaging and 3D depressed information in AL-imaging. Finally, on the basis of the established dual scanning imaging system the region of interest (ROI) localization by seed specification was designed, and the delineation for ROI by iterative relative fuzzy connectedness (IRFC) algorithm was utilized to get a precise inspection result. Our method takes into account the complementary advantages in the two common machine vision (MV) systems and it performs competitively with the state-of-the-art as seen from the comparison of experimental results. For the first time, a joint imaging scanning strategy is proposed for CC-slab surface defect inspection that allows a feasible way of powerful ROI delineation strategies to be applied to the MV inspection field. Multi-ROI delineation by using IRFC in this research field may further improve the results.
Distinguishing cause from correlation in tokamak experiments to trigger edge-localised plasma instabilities
Authors: Webster Anthony J. ,   JET EFDA Contributors
Published: November 2014

The generic question is considered: How can we determine the probability of an otherwise quasi-random event, having been triggered by an external influence? A specific problem is the quantification of the success of techniques to trigger, and hence control, edge-localised plasma instabilities (ELMs) in magnetically confined fusion (MCF) experiments. The development of such techniques is essential to ensure tolerable heat loads on components in large MCF fusion devices, and is necessary for their development into economically successful power plants. Bayesian probability theory is used to rigorously formulate the problem and to provide a formal solution. Accurate but pragmatic methods are developed to estimate triggering probabilities, and are illustrated with experimental data. These allow results from experiments to be quantitatively assessed, and rigorously quantified conclusions to be formed. Example applications include assessing whether triggering of ELMs is a statistical or deterministic process, and the establishment of thresholds to ensure that ELMs are reliably triggered.
Verification of gyrokinetic microstability codes with an LHD configuration
Authors: Mikkelsen D. R. , Nunami M. , Watanabe T.-H. , Sugama H. , Tanaka K.
Published: November 2014

We extend previous benchmarks of the GS2 and GKV-X codes to verify their algorithms for solving the gyrokinetic Vlasov-Poisson equations for plasma microturbulence. Code benchmarks are the most complete way of verifying the correctness of implementations for the solution of mathematical models for complex physical processes such as those studied here. The linear stability calculations reported here are based on the plasma conditions of an ion-ITB plasma in the LHD configuration. The plasma parameters and the magnetic geometry differ from previous benchmarks involving these codes. We find excellent agreement between the independently written pre-processors that calculate the geometrical coefficients used in the gyrokinetic equations. Grid convergence tests are used to establish the resolution and domain size needed to obtain converged linear stability results. The agreement of the frequencies, growth rates, and eigenfunctions in the benchmarks reported here provides additional verification that the algorithms used by the GS2 and GKV-X codes are correctly finding the linear eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the gyrokinetic Vlasov-Poisson equations.
Direct laser writing of flexible graphene field emitters
Authors: Viskadouros Georgios , Konios Dimitrios , Kymakis Emmanuel , Stratakis Emmanuel
Published: November 2014

We report on the simple fabrication of highly efficient solution-processable, flexible graphene-based field emission (FE) cathodes via direct laser writing of emitting pixels on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) films deposited onto rGO:poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) composite layers. Laser processing gives rise to a pronounced vertical alignment of rGO bundles perpendicular to the substrate, while at the same time sharp graphene edges are protruding out of the bundle. The laser-fabricated cathodes exhibit outstanding FE properties with a turn-on field of as low as ∼0.6 V/μm and a field enhancement factor of 8900, which are the best reported to date for rGO FE cathodes. At the same time, the cathodes exhibit stable operation under extensive and repetitive bending, a critical requirement for every flexible technology. The flexible and solution-processable, graphene-based, technology developed could be useful for diverse potential applications including field emission displays, biochemical sensors as well as solar cell and battery electrodes.
Dynamical back-action at 5.5 GHz in a corrugated optomechanical beam
Authors: Navarro-Urrios D. , Gomis-Bresco J. , El-Jallal S. , Oudich M. , Pitanti A. , Capuj N. , Tredicucci A. , Alzina F. , Griol A. , Pennec Y. , Djafari-Rouhani B. , Martínez A. , Sotomayor Torres C. M.
Published: November 2014

We report on the optomechanical properties of a breathing mechanical mode oscillating at 5.5 GHz in a 1D corrugated Si nanobeam. This mode has an experimental single-particle optomechanical coupling rate of |go,OM| = 1.8 MHz (|go,OM|/2π = 0.3 MHz) and shows strong dynamical back-action effects at room temperature. The geometrical flexibility of the unit-cell would lend itself to further engineering of the cavity region to localize the mode within the full phononic band-gap present at 4 GHz while keeping high go,OM values. This would lead to longer lifetimes at cryogenic temperatures, due to the suppression of acoustic leakage.
Asymmetric Remote C–H Functionalization: Use of Internal Olefins in Tandem Hydrometallation–Isomerization–Asymmetric Conjugate Addition Sequences
Authors: Mola Laura , Sidera Mireia , Fletcher Stephen P.
Published: November 2014

We describe catalytic asymmetric C–C formation using terminal alkyl-metal nucleophiles generated from internal olefins through a ‘chain-walking’ isomerization mechanism. Hydrometallation of internal olefins with the Schwartz reagent gives the least hindered alkyl-zirconocene after thermal (60°C in THF) isomerization. After switching the solvent from THF to dichloromethane, the alkyl-zirconocenes can be used in copper-catalyzed asymmetric conjugate additions. Addition to a variety of cyclic α,β-unsaturated species were achieved in modest (22–50 %) yield with high (84–92 % ee) enantioselectivity. This work demonstrates that remote C–H functionalization coupled with asymmetric C–C bond formation is possible, but the present procedures are limited in terms of yield and olefin scope.
Mapping the unconscious maintenance of a lost first language
Authors: Pierce Lara J. , Klein Denise , Chen Jen-Kai , Delcenserie Audrey , Genesee Fred
Published: November 2014

Significance

Using functional MRI we examined the unconscious influence of early experience on later brain outcomes. Internationally adopted (IA) children (aged 9–17 years), who were completely separated from their birth language (Chinese) at 12.8 mo of age, on average, displayed brain activation to Chinese linguistic elements that precisely matched that of native Chinese speakers, despite the fact that IA children had no subsequent exposure to Chinese and no conscious recollection of that language. Importantly, activation differed from monolingual French speakers with no Chinese exposure, despite all participants hearing identical acoustic stimuli. The similarity between adoptees and Chinese speakers clearly illustrates that early acquired information is maintained in the brain and that early experiences unconsciously influence neural processing for years, if not indefinitely.
Termite queens close the sperm gates of eggs to switch from sexual to asexual reproduction
Authors: Yashiro Toshihisa , Matsuura Kenji
Published: November 2014

Significance

To clarify the evolution of parthenogenesis, given the potential sexual conflict over genetic transmission, identifying the mechanism regulating egg fertilization in females is essential. In the termiteReticulitermes speratus, queens produce their replacements (neotenic queens) parthenogenetically but use sexual reproduction to produce other colony members. We discovered that queens of the termite close micropyles (openings for sperm entry) of their eggs to produce parthenogenetic offspring in the presence of kings. Furthermore, we found that queens control the proportion of micropyleless eggs by regulating of the number of micropyles over time. This study describes a novel route of the evolution of parthenogenesis in favor of females’ interests without interference from males.
The association between discontinuing hormonal contraceptives and wives’ marital satisfaction depends on husbands’ facial attractiveness
Authors: Russell V. Michelle , McNulty James K. , Baker Levi R. , Meltzer Andrea L.
Published: November 2014

Significance

Hormonal contraceptives (HCs) are believed to suppress biological processes associated with women’s preferences for cues of partner genetic fitness, cues that may be summarized by men’s facial attractiveness. Two longitudinal studies of marriage demonstrate that wives who used HCs at relationship formation became less satisfied when they discontinued HCs if their husband had a relatively less attractive face, but more satisfied if their husband had a relatively more attractive face. Incongruency between HC use at relationship formation and current HC use was negatively associated with sexual satisfaction, regardless of husbands’ facial attractiveness. Practically, these findings suggest that discontinuing HCs may have critical unintended effects on women’s relationships. Theoretically, they indicate that evolved mating processes have implications for established relationships.
Densovirus associated with sea-star wasting disease and mass mortality
Authors: Hewson Ian , Button Jason B. , Gudenkauf Brent M. , Miner Benjamin , Newton Alisa L. , Gaydos Joseph K. , Wynne Janna , Groves Cathy L. , Hendler Gordon , Murray Michael , Fradkin Steven , Breitbart Mya , Fahsbender Elizabeth , Lafferty Kevin D. , Kilpatrick A. Marm , Miner C. Melissa , Raimondi Peter , Lahner Lesanna , Friedman Carolyn S. , Daniels Stephen , Haulena Martin , Marliave Jeffrey , Burge Colleen A. , Eisenlord Morgan E. , Harvell C. Drew
Published: November 2014

Significance

Sea stars inhabiting the Northeast Pacific Coast have recently experienced an extensive outbreak of wasting disease, leading to their degradation and disappearance from many coastal areas. In this paper, we present evidence that the cause of the disease is transmissible from disease-affected animals to apparently healthy individuals, that the disease-causing agent is a virus-sized microorganism, and that the best candidate viral taxon, the sea star-associated densovirus (SSaDV), is in greater abundance in diseased than in healthy sea stars.
Ovarian cancer stem cells express ROR1, which can be targeted for anti–cancer-stem-cell therapy
Authors: Zhang Suping , Cui Bing , Lai Hsien , Liu Grace , Ghia Emanuela M. , Widhopf George F. , Zhang Zhuhong , Wu Christina C. N. , Chen Liguang , Wu Rongrong , Schwab Richard , Carson Dennis A. , Kipps Thomas J.
Published: November 2014

Significance

This study demonstrates that the oncoembryonic surface antigen, receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 1 (ROR1), is expressed on human ovarian cancer stem cells (CSCs), on which it seems to play a functional role in promoting migration/invasion or spheroid formation in vitro and tumor engraftment in immune-deficient mice. Treatment with a humanized mAb specific for ROR1 (UC-961) could inhibit the capacity of ovarian cancer cells to migrate, form spheroids, or engraft immune-deficient mice. Moreover, such treatment inhibited the growth of tumor xenografts, which in turn had a reduced capacity to engraft immune-deficient mice and were relatively depleted of cells with features of CSC, suggesting that treatment with UC-961 could impair CSC renewal. Collectively, these studies indicate that ovarian CSCs express ROR1, which may be targeted for anti-CSC therapy.
A model for the generation and interconversion of ER morphologies
Authors: Shemesh Tom , Klemm Robin W. , Romano Fabian B. , Wang Songyu , Vaughan Joshua , Zhuang Xiaowei , Tukachinsky Hanna , Kozlov Michael M. , Rapoport Tom A.
Published: November 2014

Significance

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is an important membrane-bound organelle in all eukaryotic cells. Depending on cell type and functional state, the ER membrane can adopt different morphologies, including a network of interconnected tubules, and sheets that can contain fenestrations or be stacked on top of each other. How these different morphologies are generated is unclear. Here, we present a comprehensive theoretical model that explains the formation and interconversion of virtually all known ER morphologies. The model is based on two types of membrane-shaping proteins, exemplified by the reticulons and lunapark, which both stabilize the high membrane curvature in cross-sections of tubules and sheet edges, but favor straight or concave sheet edges, respectively. The predictions of the model are experimentally verified.
Political representation of China–Africa: the tale of a playful panda, or a threatening dragon?
Authors: Benabdallah Lina
Published: November 2014

How is Western media portraying China–Africa relations, and what consequences do they have on Chinese media reactions and portrayals of China–Africa relations? This article takes an innovative approach analysing The Economist’s rhetoric and China Daily Africa Weekly’s political cartoons in order to ascertain the political representation of China–Africa relations in each of these outlets. The findings show that although there are major differences between the two sources in terms of the rhetoric used, in the metaphors, as well as cartoons used for illustrations, there is nonetheless an important similarity in the paternalistic tone present in both types of reporting. That is to say, there is a lack of African agency in the narratives displayed in these articles and cartoons analysed. The article closes by presenting some reflections and suggestions as to what can be done to improve Chinese media’s reporting on China–Africa.
Modern Italy 2010–2015
Authors: Cooke Phil , Foot John
Published: November 2014

This issue marks the end of our five year term of office as joint editors of Modern Italy. We are pleased to say that our excellent working relationship has remained undamaged by the experience, and that we have found the job to be continually interesting, stimulating and also challenging. There are many individuals that we would like to thank for all their help and kindness over the period. From our predecessors, Anna Cento Bull and Martin Bull, we inherited a journal which was efficiently run and well organised. We are very grateful to them for all their help and advice, particularly in the first year of our editorship. Our colleagues at Taylor & Francis have been very supportive throughout and we would like to record our debt of gratitude to the managing editors we have worked with, above all Madeleine Markey, as well as the two colleagues who have been at the sharp end, dealing with the production of the journal: Sarah Evans and Sarahjayne Smith.
Weil numbers in finite extensions of ℚ^{𝕒𝕓}: the Loxton-Kedlaya phenomenon
Authors: Stan Florin , Zaharescu Alexandru
Published: November 2014

A finiteness phenomenon described by Loxton and later by Kedlaya states that, for any fixed

m
m

, there exist (modulo multiplication by roots of unity) only finitely many

m
m

-Weil numbers in

Q

a
b

\mathbb {Q}^{ab}

. In the present paper we show that this phenomenon extends to all finite extensions of

Q

a
b

\mathbb {Q}^{ab}

.
Visual and functional demonstration of growing Bax-induced pores in mitochondrial outer membranes
Authors: Gillies Laura A , Du Han , Peters Bjoern , Knudson C. Michael , Newmeyer Donald D. , Kuwana Tomomi
Published: November 2014

Bax induces mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization (MOMP), a critical step in apoptosis in which proteins are released into the cytoplasm. To resolve aspects of the mechanism, we used cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to visualize Bax-induced pores in purified mitochondrial outer membranes (MOMs). We observed solitary pores that exhibited negative curvature at their edges. Over time, the pores grew to ∼100–160 nm in diameter after 60–90 min, with some pores measuring more than 300 nm. We confirmed these results using flow cytometry, which we used to monitor the release of fluorescent dextrans from isolated MOM vesicles. The dextran molecules were released gradually, in a manner constrained by pore size. However, the release rates were consistent over a range of dextran sizes (10–500 kDa). We concluded that the pores were not static but widened dramatically to release molecules of different sizes. Taken together, the data from cryo-EM and flow cytometry argue that Bax promotes MOMP by inducing the formation of large, growing pores through a mechanism involving membrane-curvature stress.
Does Finance Accelerate or Retard Growth? Theory and Evidence
Authors: Allen Franklin , Carletti Elena , Qian Jun “QJ” , Valenzuela Patricio
Published: November 2014

Finance can be beneficial for growth, but it can also contribute to financial crises, which are often very damaging for growth. An extensive review of the literature suggests that financial development has a positive impact on economic growth at adequate levels of financial depth but that the effect vanishes, or even becomes negative, when finance becomes excessive. Excessive finance can incubate economic booms and asset price bubbles that end in financial crises, followed by low rates of economic growth for sustained periods. Too little finance is not desirable-but too much is not desirable either. Alternative finance plays an important role in emerging economies, such as China and India. Strong institutions and legal systems may not be prerequisites for growth; alternative systems based on trust, reputation, and other mechanisms can play a crucial role.
Dignity, Crime, and Punishment
Authors: Dan-Cohen Meir
Published: November 2014

Defining criminal law and drawing its proper boundaries raises two main questions: What distinguishes criminal offenses from other preventable harms, and what distinguishes criminal punishment from other forms of government coercion? This chapter addresses these questions by drawing on Kant’s moral theory, specifically on his notion of human dignity and the related injunction that people be treated as ends. On the resulting view, the distinctive mark of core crimes is the disrespect they evince for the victims’ moral worth. Correspondingly, the central mission of criminal punishment is to uphold dignity, either by defending it from violation or by vindicating it when such violation occurs.
Unsupervised discovery of information structure in biomedical documents
Authors: Kiela Douwe , Guo Yufan , Stenius Ulla , Korhonen Anna
Published: November 2014

Motivation: Information structure (IS) analysis is a text mining technique, which classifies text in biomedical articles into categories that capture different types of information, such as objectives, methods, results and conclusions of research. It is a highly useful technique that can support a range of Biomedical Text Mining tasks and can help readers of biomedical literature find information of interest faster, accelerating the highly time-consuming process of literature review. Several approaches to IS analysis have been presented in the past, with promising results in real-world biomedical tasks. However, all existing approaches, even weakly supervised ones, require several hundreds of hand-annotated training sentences specific to the domain in question. Because biomedicine is subject to considerable domain variation, such annotations are expensive to obtain. This makes the application of IS analysis across biomedical domains difficult. In this article, we investigate an unsupervised approach to IS analysis and evaluate the performance of several unsupervised methods on a large corpus of biomedical abstracts collected from PubMed.

Results: Our best unsupervised algorithm (multilevel-weighted graph clustering algorithm) performs very well on the task, obtaining over 0.70 F scores for most IS categories when applied to well-known IS schemes. This level of performance is close to that of lightly supervised IS methods and has proven sufficient to aid a range of practical tasks. Thus, using an unsupervised approach, IS could be applied to support a wide range of tasks across sub-domains of biomedicine. We also demonstrate that unsupervised learning brings novel insights into IS of biomedical literature and discovers information categories that are not present in any of the existing IS schemes.

Availability and Implementation: The annotated corpus and software are available at http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/∼dk427/bio14info.html.

Contact:  alk23@cam.ac.uk
Full-genome evolutionary histories of selfing, splitting and selection inCaenorhabditis
Authors: Thomas Cristel G. , Wang Wei , Jovelin Richard , Ghosh Rajarshi , Lomasko Tatiana , Trinh Quang , Kruglyak Leonid , Stein Lincoln D. , Cutter Asher D.
Published: November 2014

Thenematode Caenorhabditis briggsaeis a model for comparative developmental evolution withC. elegans. Worldwide collections ofC. briggsaehave implicated an intriguing history of divergence among genetic groups separated by latitude, or by restricted geography, that is being exploited to dissect the genetic basis to adaptive evolution and reproductive incompatibility. And yet, the genomic scope and timing of population divergence is unclear. We performed high-coverage whole-genome sequencing of 37 wild isolates of the nematodeC. briggsaeand applied a pairwise sequentially Markovian coalescent (PSMC) model to 703 combinations of genomic haplotypes to draw inferences about population history, the genomic scope of natural selection, and to compare with 40 wild isolates ofC. elegans. We estimate that a diaspora of at least 6 distinctC. briggsaelineages separated from one another approximately 200 thousand generations ago, including the ‘Temperate’ and ‘Tropical’ phylogeographic groups that dominate most samples from around the world. Moreover, an ancient population split in its history 2 million generations ago, coupled with only rare gene flow among lineage groups, validates this system as a model for incipient speciation. Low versus high recombination regions of the genome give distinct signatures of population size change through time, indicative of widespread effects of selection on highly linked portions of the genome owing to extreme inbreeding by self-fertilization. Analysis of functional mutations indicates that genomic context, owing to selection that acts on long linkage blocks, is a more important driver of population variation than are the functional attributes of the individually encoded genes.
Children’s response to co-branded products: the facilitating role of fit
Authors: Charry Karine , Demoulin Nathalie T. M.
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to represent the first empirical investigation of co-branding strategies whose target is children. It analyses such strategies’ potential in the context of brand extension for non-familiar brands combined with familiar ones and provides managerial implications for both brands.

Design/methodology/approach

– A leisure centre-based survey was used to collect information on children’s attitudes, evaluations of fit and consumption intentions of co-branded products.

Findings

– The findings confirm that co-branding strategies may have a very positive impact on attitudes towards partner brands, intentions to consume co-branded products and the host brand. They also indicate that consumption intentions for other products from the host product category are enhanced. From a theoretical perspective, the study stresses the essential mediating role of brand fit. Indeed, this construct appears to enable preadolescents to integrate simultaneous evaluations of two brands while constructing their attitudes towards one product. The asymmetric spill-over effect is also confirmed, with the non-familiar (weaker) brand benefiting more from the co-branding than the familiar (strong) brand.

Research limitations/implications

– The main limitations pertain to the small sample size and the absence of direct behavioural measures that could be added through later research. It would also be interesting to study further the concept of fit and the nature of the underlying mediating process (cognitive vs affective) among the target audience, as well as to analyse the impact of the various types of co-branding (functional vs symbolic).

Practical implications

– The derived guidelines suggest how non-familiar brands to the pre-adolescent target (including retailers’ brand) may expand their businesses through successful alliances with a more familiar brand that is viewed favourably.

Social implications

– In this study, concerns were high to select a co-branded product that does not harm children’s health, to the contrary (vegetable soup with cheese). The results demonstrate that the tactic may increase the target’s intentions to eat products that it would not necessarily fancy (as often the case for healthy products) while contributing to the positive development of economic actors. In this, the paper shows that economic interests should not always be opposed to social welfare.

Originality/value

– This study investigates the very popular strategy of brand alliance among an original target (eight-to 12-year-olds) and identifies the original process through which preadolescents appraise two brands that endorse one product, a unique marketing context. This represents an important starting point to further studies on brand alliances.
Joint consumption challenges in groups
Authors: Marchand Andre
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– This study aims to develop a new general framework of the challenges for decision making in groups. Unlike most research focused on individual consumption, this study takes a broader perspective on joint consumption.

Design/methodology/approach

– The conceptual framework and the developed research questions are based on an extensive literature review.

Findings

– This research identifies five major challenges for group decisions: allocation of responsibilities, preference prediction, preference aggregation, conflicts and mutual influences. For each challenge, this study summarizes existing findings and highlights important areas for continued investigation, related to a marketing-oriented understanding of consumers. This article concludes with implications for both managers and researchers.

Originality/value

– The identified key determinants of group decisions aggregate findings from multidisciplinary literature and can help marketing researchers and managers understand the relevant but underresearched issues of decision making in groups. Furthermore, this study includes relevant moderators, such as individual and group characteristics, and reveals problematic research gaps. In turn, it offers questions and ideas for additional research.
Estimating individual promotional campaign impacts through Bayesian inference
Authors: Becker Keith , Sprigg Jim , Cosmas Alex
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to estimate individual promotional campaign impacts through Bayesian inference. Conventional statistics have worked well for analyzing the impact of direct marketing promotions on purchase behavior. However, many modern marketing programs must drive multiple purchase objectives, requiring more precise arbitration between multiple offers and collection of more data with which to differentiate individuals. This often results in datasets that are highly dimensional, yet also sparse, straining the power of statistical methods to properly estimate the effect of promotional treatments.

Design/methodology/approach

– Improvements in computing power have enabled new techniques for predicting individual behavior. This work investigates a probabilistic machine-learned Bayesian approach to predict individual impacts driven by promotional campaign offers for a leading global travel and hospitality chain. Comparisons were made to a linear regression, representative of the current state of practice.

Findings

– The findings of this work focus on comparing a machine-learned Bayesian approach with linear regression (which is representative of the current state of practice among industry practitioners) in the analysis of a promotional campaign across three key areas: highly dimensional data, sparse data and likelihood matching.

Research limitations/implications

– Because the findings are based on a single campaign, future work includes generalizing results across multiple promotional campaigns. Also of interest for future work are comparisons of the technique developed here with other techniques from academia.

Practical implications

– Because the Bayesian approach allows estimation of the influence of the promotion for each hypothetical customer’s set of promotional attributes, even when no exact look-alikes exist in the control group, a number of possible applications exist. These include optimal campaign design (given the ability to estimate the promotional attributes that are likely to drive the greatest incremental spend in a hypothetical deployment) and operationalizing efficient audience selection given the model’s individualized estimates, reducing the risk of marketing overcommunication, which can prompt costly unsubscriptions.

Originality/value

– The original contribution is the application of machine-learning to Bayesian Belief Network construction in the context of analyzing a multi-channel promotional campaign’s impact on individual customers. This is of value to practitioners seeking alternatives for campaign analysis for applications in which more commonly used models are not well-suited, such as the three key areas that this paper highlights: highly dimensional data, sparse data and likelihood matching.
Modeling attitude constructs in movie product placements
Authors: K. Balasubramanian Siva , Patwardhan Hemant , Pillai Deepa , K. Coker Kesha
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a conceptual framework of attitudinal constructs that influence attitude toward the brand in movie product placements. Advertising literature is replete with studies on factors that influence attitude toward the brand (Ab). However, this topic remains under-explored for product placements.

Design/methodology/approach

– Our framework showcases several theories to relate attitude and fit constructs to attitudes toward the product placement and attitude toward the brand. We use the structural equation model approach to estimate the conceptual framework.

Findings

– Several attitudinal movie constructs (attitude toward the actor, the character and the movie) influence attitude toward the product placement, which in turn mediates the relationship between the former attitudinal constructs and attitude toward the brand. Interestingly, only the fit between the actor and placed brand impacted attitude toward the product placement, with no effects found for the fit between the character and the fit between the movie and brand and the attitude toward the product placement.

Research limitations/implications

– We focus on explicit attitudes; implicit attitudes need future research attention.

Practical implications

– Findings affirm a key role for the actor featured in the placement in directly or indirectly shaping the attitude toward the brand.

Originality/value

– This is the first study to apply the structural equation modeling approach to this research area.
Use of mental health services by women in low and middle income countries
Authors: Paula de los Angeles Christine , Watkins Lewis William , McBain Ryan , Taghi Yasamy Mohammad , Aderemi Olukoya Adepeju , Morris Jodi
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine sex differences in mental health service usage among upper-middle, lower-middle, and low-income countries (LICs).

Design/methodology/approach

– Data from 62 low- and middle-income countries (LAMICs) were collected with the World Health Organization – Assessment Instrument for Mental Health Systems (WHO-AIMS). Sex differences in mental health service utilization were assessed by comparing the proportion female in the general population with the proportion female treated for mental illness in five different types of mental health facility.

Findings

– Two-sided t-tests for significance (a=0.05) revealed a significant difference between the proportion female in the population and the proportion treated in inpatient facilities (community-based and mental hospitals) in LICs. There was also a trend toward decreased use of outpatient facilities by women in LICs (p=0.08). Lower-middle and upper-middle income countries showed no differences. In day treatment facilities for the entire sample, there was a significant difference between the proportion female in the population and the proportion treated female (weighted mean difference overall=0.10, p=0.035).

Research limitations/implications

– The authors found significantly reduced utilization of mental health services by women in LICs in community-based inpatient facilities and mental hospitals and a trend toward decreased use in outpatient facilities. Future studies investigating the factors contributing to the lower utilization of services by women in LICs are essential.

Originality/value

– This study presents the first comprehensive study of mental health service usage by sex in 62 LAMICs.
Pilot study using Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) in post-combat PTSD
Authors: Wake Lisa , Leighton Margaret
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to determine if neurolinguistic programming (NLP) tools and techniques were effective in alleviating the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in clients from the Military and Emergency Services.

Design/methodology/approach

– This project ran at the “Healing the Wounds” charity in Bridgend. All clients were opportunistic, having self-referred to a charity specifically set up to support Veterans from the Armed Forces. In total, 29 clients from an initial cohort of 106 clients provided pre and post data using Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) and the NLP Wheel of Life scale. Interventions included a range of NLP techniques, addressing self-reported symptoms.

Findings

– Differences between DASS scores before and after treatment are very highly significant. t-test analysis infers that these results are indicative of the overall response from the clients in this study.

Research limitations/implications

– Limitations of the study include: client group; significant levels of incomplete data for the total study group; therapist effect and therapist training; treatment methodology.

Originality/value

– Data suggest that NLP has potential as a therapeutic tool in the treatment of symptoms of anxiety and depression associated with a self-report of PTSD. An observation is proposed that these candidates experience an improvement in their emotional state when NLP is used which is statistically significant (p<0.001) both for overall DASS score averages and also for each of the three DASS categories (Depression, Anxiety and Stress). Stress was the highest scoring category prior to treatment for these clients; the reduction in their stress symptoms contributed most substantially to the overall reduction in average DASS score, indicating an improvement in their emotional state.
Financial advice and asset allocation of individual investors
Authors: Zhang Annie Claire
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to explore the differences in KiwiSaver portfolio composition between investors who receive financial advice and those who do not.

Design/methodology/approach

– Using proprietary data which contain information of 405,107 individual KiwiSaver accounts, this paper examines who receives advice, compares the asset allocations of advised accounts with non-advised accounts, explores the relation of asset allocation with demographic characteristics and compares differences in returns between advised and non-advised investors.

Findings

– Three key findings are presented in this paper. First, female investors, relatively older investors and investors with higher levels of funds under management (invested wealth) are more likely to receive financial advice. Second, advised investors hold more equity assets. Third, differences in performance between advised and non-advised accounts are marginal.

Research limitations/implications

– Panel data are not used, which prohibit investigating asset allocation choices overtime. The time series for returns is short, as KiwiSaver has only been operating since 2007. The total portfolio that people own is not known; thus, the values on investment fund information do not represent the total wealth of each person, as other accounts elsewhere may exist.

Practical implications

– There are broad implications for the New Zealand capital market, retirement policy, financial advice industry and development of financial literacy programmes.

Originality/value

– The paper examines individual investor behaviour on a nationwide sample and explores how receiving financial advice relates to asset allocation.
Should dehydration in older people be a marker of lack of quality in long term care provision?
Authors: Hooper Lee , Bunn Diane K
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to consider whether dehydration in older people should be used as a marker of lack of quality in long-term care provision.

Design/methodology/approach

– The piece examines the assumed relationship between dehydration and the quality of care, and then considers the factors that can lead to dehydration in older people.

Findings

– Even with the best care, older people, in the absence of a sense of thirst, and for fear of urinary accidents, difficulties getting to the toilet or choking, may choose to drink less than would be ideal for their health. While good care supports older people to minimise these problems, it also respects older people making their own decisions around when, what and how much to drink. It appears that dehydration may sometimes be a sign of good care, as well as arising from poor care.

Social implications

– Residential care homes should not be stigmatised on the basis of their residents being dehydrated, but rather helped to explore whether they are achieving an appropriate balance between care and quality of life for their residents.

Originality/value

– This discussion may be of use to those living in, working in, managing or assessing residential care.