bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A rapid loss of stripes: the evolutionary history of the extinct quagga
Authors: Leonard Jennifer A , Rohland Nadin , Glaberman Scott , Fleischer Robert C , Caccone Adalgisa , Hofreiter Michael
Published: July 2005

Twenty years ago, the field of ancient DNA was launched with the publication of two short mitochondrial (mt) DNA sequences from a single quagga (
Equus quagga
) museum skin, an extinct South African equid (

Higuchi
et al
. 1984

Nature
312
, 282–284). This was the first extinct species from which genetic information was retrieved. The DNA sequences of the quagga showed that it was more closely related to zebras than to horses. However, quagga evolutionary history is far from clear. We have isolated DNA from eight quaggas and a plains zebra (subspecies or phenotype
Equus burchelli burchelli
). We show that the quagga displayed little genetic diversity and very recently diverged from the plains zebra, probably during the penultimate glacial maximum. This emphasizes the importance of Pleistocene climate changes for phylogeographic patterns in African as well as Holarctic fauna.
Feathers at nests are potential female signals in the spotless starling
Authors: Veiga José P , Polo Vicente
Published: July 2005

Although the presence of feathers in the nest is widespread among birds, it has not been previously suggested that feathers can be used as sexual signals. Females of the spotless starling (
Sturnus unicolor
) regularly carry feathers to their nest, mostly during laying and incubation. We show that the arrangement of these feathers was non-random with respect to the side (obverse or reverse) placed upwards (which can be viewed from the nest entrance). Feathers of the wood pigeon (
Columba palumbus
) and the spotless starling, which exhibit higher ultraviolet and visible reflectance on their reverse side, were predominantly placed with this side upwards. On the contrary, feathers of the jay (
Garrulus glandarius
) were predominantly found exhibiting the obverse side, which possesses higher reflectance in this species. Feathers of the azure-winged magpie (
Cyanopica cyana
), with similar reflectance values on either side, were placed indiscriminately in obverse and reverse positions. The results suggest that feathers are arranged to maximize their conspicuousness within the nest and hence that they might be potentially used as intraspecific signals.
Women's preference for dominant male odour: effects of menstrual cycle and relationship status
Authors: Havlicek Jan , Roberts S. Craig , Flegr Jaroslav
Published: July 2005

Body odour may provide significant cues about a potential sexual partner's genetic quality, reproductive status and health. In animals, a key trait in a female's choice of sexual partner is male dominance but, to date, this has not been examined in humans. Here, we show that women in the fertile phase of their cycle prefer body odour of males who score high on a questionnaire-based dominance scale (international personality items pool). In accordance with the theory of mixed mating strategies, this preference varies with relationship status, being much stronger in fertile women in stable relationships than in fertile single women.
Recruitment of the human TREX complex to mRNA during splicing
Authors: Masuda Seiji , Das Rita , Cheng Hong , Hurt Ed , Dorman Nijsje , Reed Robin
Published: July 2005

In yeast, the TREX complex contains the THO transcription elongation complex, which functions in direct cotranscriptional recruitment of the mRNA export proteins Sub2 and Yra1 to nascent transcripts. Here we report the identification of the human THO complex and show that it associates with spliced mRNA, but not with unspliced pre-mRNA in vitro. Transcription is not required for this recruitment. We also show that the human THO complex colocalizes with splicing factors in nuclear speckle domains in vivo. Considering that splicing occurs cotranscriptionally in humans, our data indicate that recruitment of the human TREX complex to spliced mRNA is not directly coupled to transcription, but is instead coupled to transcription indirectly through splicing.
A systematic RNAi screen for longevity genes in C. elegans
Authors: Hamilton Benjamin , Dong Yuqing , Shindo Mami , Liu Wenyu , Odell Ian , Ruvkun Gary , Lee Siu Sylvia
Published: July 2005

We report here the first genome-wide functional genomic screen for longevity genes. We systematically surveyed Caenorhabditis elegans genes using large-scale RNA interference (RNAi), and found that RNAi inactivation of 89 genes extend C. elegans lifespan. Components of the daf-2/insulin-like signaling pathway are recovered, as well as genes that regulate metabolism, signal transduction, protein turnover, and gene expression. Many of these candidate longevity genes are conserved across animal phylogeny. Genetic interaction analyses with the new longevity genes indicate that some act upstream of the daf-16/FOXO transcription factor or the sir2.1 protein deacetylase, and others function independently of daf-16/FOXO and sir2.1, and might define new pathways to regulate lifespan.
The AIP2 E3 ligase acts as a novel negative regulator of ABA signaling by promoting ABI3 degradation
Authors: Zhang Xiuren , Garreton Virginia , Chua Nam-Hai
Published: July 2005

The phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) mediates many complex aspects of plant development including seed maturation, dormancy, and germination as well as root growth. The B3-domain transcription factor abscisic acid-insensitive 3 (ABI3) is a central regulator in ABA signaling, but little is known of how this factor is regulated. Here, we show that ABI3 is an unstable protein and that an ABI3-interacting protein (AIP2), which contains a RING motif, can polyubiquitinate ABI3 in vitro. The AIP2 E3 ligase activity is abolished by mutations (C230S; C231S) in the RING motif and the AIP2 (C/S) mutant functions in a dominant-negative manner. AIP2 has a stronger binding affinity for the B2 + B3 domain of ABI3 than the A1 + B1 domain, but only ubiquitinates the latter. In double-transgenic plants, induced AIP2 expression leads to a decrease in ABI3 protein levels. In contrast, ABI3 levels are elevated upon induced expression of the AIP2 RING mutant, which interferes with the endogenous AIP2 E3 activity. An aip2-1-null mutant shows higher ABI3 protein levels compared with wild type after seed stratification, and is hypersensitive to ABA, mimicking the ABI3-overexpression phenotype, whereas AIP2-overexpression plants contain lower levels of ABI3 protein than wild type and are more resistant to ABA, phenocopying abi3. Our results indicate that AIP2 negatively regulates ABA signaling by targeting ABI3 for post-translational destruction.
Constructing transcriptional regulatory networks
Authors: Blais Alexandre , Dynlacht Brian David
Published: July 2005

Biological networks are the representation of multiple interactions within a cell, a global view intended to help understand how relationships between molecules dictate cellular behavior. Recent advances in molecular and computational biology have made possible the study of intricate transcriptional regulatory networks that describe gene expression as a function of regulatory inputs specified by interactions between proteins and DNA. Here we review the properties of transcriptional regulatory networks and the rapidly evolving approaches that will enable the elucidation of their structure and dynamic behavior. Several recent studies illustrate how complementary approaches combine chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP)-on-chip, gene expression profiling, and computational methods to construct blueprints for the initiation and maintenance of complex cellular processes, including cell cycle progression, growth arrest, and differentiation. These approaches should allow us to elucidate complete transcriptional regulatory codes for yeast as well as mammalian cells.
Examples of the complex architecture of the human transcriptome revealed by RACE and high-density tiling arrays
Authors: Kapranov Philipp , Drenkow Jorg , Cheng Jill , Long Jeffrey , Helt Gregg , Dike Sujit , Gingeras Thomas R.
Published: July 2005

Recently, we mapped the sites of transcription across ∼30% of the human genome and elucidated the structures of several hundred novel transcripts. In this report, we describe a novel combination of techniques including the rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) and tiling array technologies that was used to further characterize transcripts in the human transcriptome. This technical approach allows for several important pieces of information to be gathered about each array-detected transcribed region, including strand of origin, start and termination positions, and the exonic structures of spliced and unspliced coding and noncoding RNAs. In this report, the structures of transcripts from 14 transcribed loci, representing both known genes and unannotated transcripts taken from the several hundred randomly selected unannotated transcripts described in our previous work are represented as examples of the complex organization of the human transcriptome. As a consequence of this complexity, it is not unusual that a single base pair can be part of an intricate network of multiple isoforms of overlapping sense and antisense transcripts, the majority of which are unannotated. Some of these transcripts follow the canonical splicing rules, whereas others combine the exons of different genes or represent other types of noncanonical transcripts. These results have important implications concerning the correlation of genotypes to phenotypes, the regulation of complex interlaced transcriptional patterns, and the definition of a gene.
Assessing the limits of genomic data integration for predicting protein networks
Authors: Lu Long J. , Xia Yu , Paccanaro Alberto , Yu Haiyuan , Gerstein Mark
Published: July 2005

Genomic data integration—the process of statistically combining diverse sources of information from functional genomics experiments to make large-scale predictions—is becoming increasingly prevalent. One might expect that this process should become progressively more powerful with the integration of more evidence. Here, we explore the limits of genomic data integration, assessing the degree to which predictive power increases with the addition of more features. We focus on a predictive context that has been extensively investigated and benchmarked in the past—the prediction of protein–protein interactions in yeast. We start by using a simple Naive Bayes classifier for integrating diverse sources of genomic evidence, ranging from coexpression relationships to similar phylogenetic profiles. We expand the number of features considered for prediction to 16, significantly more than previous studies. Overall, we observe a small, but measurable improvement in prediction performance over previous benchmarks, based on four strong features. This allows us to identify new yeast interactions with high confidence. It also allows us to quantitatively assess the inter-relations amongst different genomic features. It is known that subtle correlations and dependencies between features can confound the strength of interaction predictions. We investigate this issue in detail through calculating mutual information. To our surprise, we find no appreciable statistical dependence between the many possible pairs of features. We further explore feature dependencies by comparing the performance of our simple Naive Bayes classifier with a boosted version of the same classifier, which is fairly resistant to feature dependence. We find that boosting does not improve performance, indicating that, at least for prediction purposes, our genomic features are essentially independent. In summary, by integrating a few (i.e., four) good features, we approach the maximal predictive power of current genomic data integration; moreover, this limitation does not reflect (potentially removable) inter-relationships between the features.
The MicrobesOnline Web site for comparative genomics
Authors: Alm Eric J. , Huang Katherine H. , Price Morgan N. , Koche Richard P. , Keller Keith , Dubchak Inna L. , Arkin Adam P.
Published: July 2005

At present, hundreds of microbial genomes have been sequenced, and hundreds more are currently in the pipeline. The Virtual Institute for Microbial Stress and Survival has developed a publicly available suite of Web-based comparative genomic tools (http://www.microbesonline.org) designed to facilitate multispecies comparison among prokaryotes. Highlights of the MicrobesOnline Web site include operon and regulon predictions, a multispecies genome browser, a multispecies Gene Ontology browser, a comparative KEGG metabolic pathway viewer, a Bioinformatics Workbench for in-depth sequence analysis, and Gene Carts that allow users to save genes of interest for further study while they browse. In addition, we provide an interface for genome annotation, which like all of the tools reported here, is freely available to the scientific community.
Retail operations strategies
Authors: Lowson Robert H.
Published: July 2005

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the role and contribution of an operations strategy for the retailer.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology is mainly qualitative empirical research.

Findings

Analyses of the data collected reveals that the respondent organisations had a number of strategic aspirations and these objectives could be isolated, described and classified. It became apparent that the development and deployment of an operations strategy was closely related to these longer‐term business aims. The research was able to establish clear correlations between the application of these strategies and the achievement of both strategic and tactical objectives over a period of time.

Originality/value

The work demonstrates support for the contention that the use of an operations strategy is important to fuel the success of these organisations. It also questions the lack of emphasis given to this aspect in the strategic literature and most conceptual models of strategy.
Patterns of change in manufacturing strategy configurations
Authors: Cagliano Raffaella , Acur Nuran , Boer Harry
Published: July 2005

Purpose

The paper aims to address the question of how and how often companies change their manufacturing strategy in the medium and long run, thus addressing a lack of evidence in the literature.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper explores the movements made by companies among four manufacturing strategy configurations drawn from the literature (market‐based, product‐based, capability‐based and price‐based configuration). Analyses are based on three longitudinal samples from the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS) database.

Findings

Results show that while strategic configurations are rather stable, many companies do indeed change strategy and identifies which patterns of change prevail. Product‐based strategy is the most‐widely spread and most stable strategy. Capability‐based competition is the rising star. The market‐based strategy is struggling and price‐based competition is on its way out.

Research limitations/implications

The main limitation is the small size of longitudinal samples, leading to tentative propositions for further testing.

Practical implications

No strategic configuration appears to be the final “maturity” target for manufacturers. Companies select their configurations according to life cycle of the organization and market competition.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to fill a lack of longitudinal evidence of strategic change and flexibility of manufacturing companies.
Developments in biosensors – where are tomorrow's markets?
Authors: Bogue Robert
Published: July 2005

Purpose

This paper discusses the size and structure of the global biosensor market which is presently dominated by medical applications.

Design/methodology/approach

It considers a number of recent developments based on nanotechnology.

Findings

Identifies homeland security as an emerging area offering significant prospects for technological innovation and market growth.

Originality/value

Of interest to those concerned with technology developments.
Innovative date‐coding technique
Authors: Connolly Christine
Published: July 2005

Purpose

Describes the properties and uses of a new colour‐change chemical for laser‐printing of human and machine‐readable data.

Design/methodology/approach

Presents the characteristics and modes of application of the chemical, its advantages over the current techniques of inkjet printing and laser‐marking, and a number of applications which show its distinctive features.

Findings

This chemical gives faster throughput and better print clarity than existing laser scribing processes, and opens up new anti‐counterfeiting techniques.

Originality/value

Draws attention to an invention that will make an impact on factory date‐coding procedures.
A lifetime's change in LIS
Authors: Line Maurice B.
Published: July 2005

Purpose

To investigate and comment on changes in LIS during a lifetime in libraries, half of it spent in senior positions.

Design/methodology/approach

Narrative reminiscence.

Findings

Dramatic changes have occurred in the use of technology, management and attitudes to users, but most of them were initiated by non‐librarians. LIS needs more leaders and innovators.

Originality/value

Reflections on a lifetime in librarianship by one of its leading practitioners and the subject of this festschrift.
Maurice's management maxims
Authors: Line Maurice B.
Published: July 2005

Purpose

Aims to bring together the author's management maxims.

Design/methodology/approach

The approach is to provide a simple listing of the maxims.

Findings

The list offers words of wisdom from an experienced information and library professional.

Originality/value

Pertinent advice for information – and other – professionals and managers.
Psycho‐social factors influencing practice of total quality management in some Nigerian organizations
Authors: Osayawe Ehigie Benjamin , Clement Akpan Regina
Published: July 2005

Purpose

To identify some psychological and social variables that could enhance employees' adoption of total quality management (TQM) in an organization that chooses to implement the management philosophy.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey research was conducted, using 418 middle management staff, randomly drawn from some TQM and non‐TQM courier organizations in Nigeria. Respondents received standardized scales measuring perception of their leaders' leadership styles, organizational reward system and self‐report of personality attributes (psychological variables), along with items measuring gender, age, job tenure and level of education (social variables). They also responded to questionnaire items measuring the extent to which they practice TQM.

Findings

Correlation analysis show that higher level of maintenance leadership style along with lower level of performance leadership style, low levels of extraversion and neuroticism, higher level of education and shorter job tenure enhance subordinates' practice of TQM. t‐test results show that Employees in TQM organizations were significantly higher on perceived maintenance and performance leadership styles and reward but significantly lower on extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism than their non‐TQM counterparts.

Research limitations/implications

All measures were based on self‐report of the respondents and data were from only service organizations, thus, limiting generalizations of the findings.

Practical implications

Implementers of TQM in organizations in Nigeria should endeavor to put in place appropriate leadership styles, consider personality attributes, level of education and duration of working in any non‐TQM organization among other personnel issues for selection and retention in a TQM practicing organization.

Originality/value

TQM is a management technique being adopted in Nigeria with some difficulties. The present study brings to focus psychological and social variables that could ease its implementation.
Strategies for managerial self‐change in a cleaned‐up bureaucracy: a qualitative study
Authors: Jones Robert , Kriflik George
Published: July 2005

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a set of strategies for effective managerial self‐change within the substantive setting of a cleaned‐up bureaucracy.

Design/methodology/approach

Using inductive methodology, data have been collected and analysed from a large Australian public‐sector bureaucracy by means of 26 personal interviews conducted between 2000 and 2002.

Findings

A conceptual model of managerial self‐change is presented stressing the importance of both cognitive and behavioural strategies within the context of an “awareness‐understanding‐accomplishment” feedback loop and learning process. The model incorporates and extends some of the major concepts in the extant literature on thought self‐leadership and learned optimism by incorporating attributional analysis into managerial cognitive thought patterns. The findings also suggest refinements to the concept of managerial credibility within cleaned‐up bureaucracies.

Research limitations/implications

Findings are derived on the basis of a substantive case study of one cleaned‐up bureaucracy in a particular country. Further research needs to expand this base to encompass other organizations in a wider range of countries across different cultures.

Practical implications

The model draws attention to how the behaviour of organisational subordinates within cleaned‐up bureaucracies is significantly affected by the attitudes and actions of their immediate manager. By adopting a set of strategies contained with the conceptual model, managers can learn how to change themselves.

Originality/value

The paper departs from the prevalent tendency of the extant literature to employ laboratory or experimentally derived data by using systematically gathered and grounded empirical data in a naturalistic organisational setting. Additionally, the findings have more to say about the nuances of a particular organisational context rather than generalising across numerous contextual environments.
Managers dealing with work‐family‐conflict: an explorative analysis
Authors: Kasper Helmut , Meyer Michael , Schmidt Angelika
Published: July 2005

Purpose

Most managers are heavily affected by the relationship between their professional and their private life. Work‐life‐balance is discussed rarely without discomfort, which suggests a massive tension and conflict caused by the contradiction of private and professional requirements. Managers use a range of individual strategies to deal with this conflict situation. An explorative empirical study on these strategies is presented.

Design/methodology/approach

The sample is drawn largely according to the principles of theoretical sampling, different family‐work constellations provide the basis of selection. Our sample includes people from the upper and highest levels of organizational hierarchies. Most of them have children and working partners, hence they find themselves in specific phases of the family cycle. Thirty problem‐focussed interviews are content analyzed. In order to reveal pattern of dealing with work‐life‐conflict cluster and pronominal analyses are applied.

Findings

Results show three distinct prototypes of dealing with the work‐family‐tension: career as subject of social fascination, family as a factual task, the tradition of two worlds, double burden and the pressure of tasks. One outstanding result in advance: if both partners are professionally active (Double Career Couples), the family will increasingly be dominated by merely functional requirements.

Originality/value

Explorative analyses and results are presented. The applied combination of content analysis and detailed linguistic procedures allows a new, more differentiated view on how managers perceive work‐life‐balance. Real types of handling work‐life‐conflicts are revealed. Based on these findings, more quantitative and structured analyses of managers' work‐life‐behavior can be conducted, especially on these types' overall prevalence, on changes in the course of managers' life cycle, on causal factors, and on implications for human resource management.
Risk management, internal controls and organizational vulnerabilities
Authors: Pathak Jagdish
Published: July 2005

Purpose

This is a theme editorial written exclusively by the guest editor for this special issue. This opinion piece demonstrates the impact of technology convergence on the internal control mechanism of an enterprise. It is important for an auditor to be aware of the security hazards faced by financial or the entire organizational information system. Author attempts to bring security systems design and the organizational vulnerabilities in the context of the convergence of communication and networking technologies with the complex information technology in business processes.

Design/methodology/approach

This editorial is mostly conceptual analysis of the current state of affairs.

Findings

Being an editorial, there are no specific findings presented in this piece.

Research limitations/implications

Theme editorials, being conceptual expositions of a particular current issue generally lack support of data analysis. However, advantage can be obtained by the future researchers by designing a study around the theme propounded in it here.

Practical implications

Its conceptual contribution is mostly knowledge enhancement and skill building for the professional external, internal or information systems auditor and budding researchers in the field of internal controls, new technologies and security.

Originality/value

It is an original piece written with a purpose of presenting the importance of convergence of technology vis‐à‐vis its impact on the internal controls in an organization and the matters of security.
The impact of procurement card usage on cost reduction, management control, and the managerial audit function
Authors: Boulianne Emilio
Published: July 2005

Purpose

Provide a better understanding of the functionalities and benefits of the procurement card technology (P‐Card), and examines the card's impact on management control and the audit function.

Design/methodology/approach

Describes the recent published works on P‐Card's benefits in costs reduction and data integration with information systems, aiming to provide comprehensive research and practical advices.

Findings

Provides information about the impact of P‐Card on business processes, along with opportunities to set managerial reports. The future of P‐Card technology is elaborated in order to broadening P‐Card usage.

Research limitations/implications

To explain the determinants of and outcomes from the adoption and usage of P‐Card, contingency variables such as size, business environment, and structure may be examined. Also, studies on P‐Card have only used the survey method as the way to gather information, while interviews, observation, and system documentation examination should be performed to corroborate the survey results obtained. Intangible benefits such as improved decision‐making, better management control, or improved job satisfaction should be considered to provide more robust assessment of P‐Card usage and benefits.

Practical implications

A useful source of information to help management auditors to take proactive approaches to improve business efficiency, design effective control systems, and streamline accounting processes.

Originality/value

The paper describes ways to integrate P‐Card data directly to computer‐based accounting information systems via electronic posting to the ledger offered by software capabilities.
Employing generalized audit software in the financial services sector
Authors: Debreceny Roger , Lee Sook‐Leng , Neo Willy , Shuling Toh Jocelyn
Published: July 2005

Purpose

Computer assisted audit techniques (CAATs) encompass a range of computerized techniques that internal and external auditors use to facilitate their audit objectives. One of the most important CAATs is generalized audit software (GAS), which is a class of packaged software that allows auditors to interrogate a variety of databases, application software and other sources and then conduct analyzes and audit routines on the extracted or live data. This study seeks to evaluate the nature and extent of the utilization of CAATs in financial institutions. In particular, the study establishes the extent and nature of use of GAS by bank internal auditors and their external auditors. The study is conducted with large local and international commercial banks in Singapore, a major financial center. Given the limited research on GAS in general and in the financial services sector in particular, the study uses exploratory qualitative research.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative research employing depth interviews with internal and external auditors of financial institutions.

Finding

The research finds that the extent and range of use of GAS varies widely between the institutions in the sample. Internal auditors see GAS primarily as a tool for special investigations rather than as a foundation for their regular audit work. External auditors make no use of GAS, citing the inapplicability of this class of tool to the nature of testing the financial statement assertions or the extent or quality of computerized internal controls maintained by the bank.

Research limitations/implications

This is a small sample study. While the data are rich, the findings cannot necessarily be extrapolated to broader populations.

Practical implications

This study provides guidance on the role that CAATs play in the audit process of financial institutions that is relevant for the audit community.

Originality/value

This is the first in‐depth study of the application of CAATs to financial institutions.
The commercial use of PROLOG
Authors: Andrew Alex M.
Published: July 2005

Purpose

The commercial use of the logic programming language PROLOG is reviewed, with reference to applications in legal document preparation, advice to medical practitioners, natural language processing and analysis of social networks. Natural language processing is applied to story generation with extension to a flexible scheme for production and editing of documents, and in a separate scheme to computer programming. PROLOG is also the basis of a means of network analysis that has been applied in the study of business alliances and in analysis of terrorist networks.

Design/methodology/approach

The aim is to review developments accessible through the internet, especially those of general cybernetic interest.

Findings

Reference is made to tested practical applications and it is shown that logic programming continues to be a live topic. There are implications for its relationship to human mental processes, but these are not explored here.

Practical implications

In a large class of application areas, the use of logic programming allows rapid and relatively error‐free program development, possible with modest hardware requirements.

Originality/value

It is hoped this is a valuable periodic review.
Revisiting the political cybernetics of organisations
Authors: Yolles Maurice
Published: July 2005

Purpose

The viable systems theory of autonomous social communities is a cybernetic theory in which politics is seen as a facilitator for social coherence. A recent paper by Yolles explored this dimension, considering, how power and its process affects structure, manipulates information, and influences the way that people behave. A core conceptualization of that paper about political temperament is corrected and further developed.

Design/methodology/approach

Interest in this paper lies in the social cybernetics of autonomous social communities that have a culture, normative behaviour, and where the behaviour is ultimately determined from that culture. Autonomous social communities that have a culture have a history and dynamic that can be argued to have a potential for behavioural coherence through policy formation and processes of action research. It is through this proposition that politics is engaged in the theory.

Findings

This paper offers a correction and development of Yolle's conceptual representation of the notion of political temperament as discussed by Duverger. Political temperament is a part of political culture, and is ultimately connected to the way that power is created, assigned and used. Yolles was concerned with the relationship between political temperament, political management, and processes of power distribution. However, this model was misconceived, and we shall redefine it by expressing political temperament as the relationship between political mindedness, political management, and political centripetality (or process of power distribution).

Originality/value

In this paper it is argued that political temperament comes from a set of attitudes that underpin the political nature of a governing body that becomes responsible for the political management of a social community. It is seen to contribute to the formation of the political culture of autonomous social communities.
Non‐linear dynamics in affective solutions: analysis of massive collectives of emotional agents
Authors: Adamatzky Andrew
Published: July 2005

Purpose

Aims to take an atomistic view on emotions, where emotions are seen as discrete entities interacting with one another.

Design/methodology/approach

Takes an unconventional route in simulation of mental processes – studying emotions in terms of artificial, abstract, chemical systems, where emotions are seen as chemical species and chemical reactions correspond to rules of emotional interactions.

Findings

An affective solution is a theoretical construct which represents emotions spreading and interacting in massive pools of locally interacting entities. Molecules in the affective solution stand for basic emotions: happiness, anger, fear, confusion and sadness, which diffuse and react with each other by quasi‐chemical laws. In computational experiments with affective solutions, in well‐stirred and thin‐layer reactors, uncovers varieties of behavioural modes of emotion interactions.

Originality/value

Tests applicability of affective solutions in an example of emotional abuse therapy.
Secondary holodiffractional radiation of biological systems
Authors: Shaduri Marina
Published: July 2005

Purpose

Reproducible images of human fingertips' induced glow (Kirlian radiation) were captured despite extremely unstable nature of living systems' emission. The matrix of correlations between fingertips' radiation in the electromagnetic field of high frequency and systemic features of human organism has been studied.

Design/methodology/approach

Weak natural emission of biological object is enhanced and transformed into visual images by gas discharge processes, which proceed in the electromagnetic field of high frequency. Such secondary radiation was found to be reproducible only when special polyethylene membrane is placed between the glass surface of the camera screen and target fingertip (or other living object). Resulting images of fingertips' discharge coronas provide comprehencible information on the whole living system.

Findings

Present research resulted in the discovery of previously unknown phenomenon, which turned out to be specific for living systems. It is demonstrated that Kirlian radiation of fingertips can display almost exact replicas (holograms) of organism's internal organs and tissues. Each part of the body is able to provide holographic information on any problematic element of dynamic system. Holodiffractional nature of discovered phenomenon has been confirmed experimentally.

Originality/value

The discovery of new natural phenomenon represents a major step forward regarding both theoretical disciplines and practical biomedicine. Secondary holodiffractional radiation of body parts provides previously unavailable information on dynamic organization of the whole living system. Bioholographic information is already widely used for diagnostics of body/mind pathology.
A systematic approach to tropical cyclone track forecasting
Authors: Peng Tao‐Yong , Joe Kwon H. , Lee Woo‐Jin , Lim Jang‐Ho
Published: July 2005

Purpose

In operational tropical cyclone (TC) forecasting practice, there are usually many TC track guidances available from various official sources. When they do not converge, the guidances need to be ensembled by systematic approaches to formulate the best possible track as an official local TC track forecasting.

Design/methodology/approach

The main approach of the research is focused on finding an atmospheric environment favourable for TC survival (genesis) with the help of commonly accepted knowledge in atmospheric physics that reveals mechanism driving evolution and change of synoptic patterns in the atmosphere, using routinely available observational data, i.e. identification of TCF/TCR areas. The techniques developed are then applied to ensemble the TC track guidances available operationally to formulate an official TC track forecasting.

Findings

The results show that TC movement is very dependent on the atmospheric environment surrounding a TC. Whether the environment is favourable (TCF) or resistant (TCR) to survival of a TC system is a vital factor to determine where the TC moving. A systematic approach to the identification of the TCR/TCF areas is a key technique to ensemble available TC track guidances to formulate an official TC track forecasting.

Originality/value

In operational TC forecasting, TC track forecasting is the most important and difficult issue. The results indicate that the systematic approach to TC track forecasting has philosophical justification, solid scientific ground, sound logic and practical viability, and thus, make TC track forecasting easy and effective.
Cognitive and neuropsychological basis for quantum mechanics: Part III
Authors: Fidelman Uri
Published: July 2005

Purpose

This is a continuation of Parts I and II of the paper. In this part it is suggested that microscopic particles behave similarly to macroscopic objects: Features of two entangled particles, having the same “dimension” (kind of feature), may interchange and migrate from one particle to the other while their wave function collapses. In the particular case of electrically charged particles, like an electron and a proton, the migrating features that are interchanged between the particles, may be the electrical charges (that have the same “dimension”). This implies that each atom of matter has some very small probability to be an atom of antimatter, and it may be annihilated if it collides with an atom of matter. The purpose of this study is to suggest how this hypothesis may be tested empirically.

Design/methodology/approach

The cooler are the molecules of gases, the slower they are. Therefore, according to Heisenberg's principle of uncertainty, the probability that gaseous molecules will collide increases when the gas is cooled.

Findings

We may expect that when gases are cooled there is a higher than usual probability that gaseous molecules of matter and antimater will collide and will annihilate each other, emitting photons of gamma rays. Such findings has been reported by Molchadzki, but not explained. The same is true regarding other situations in which the probability of collisions of gaseous molecules is higher than the usual, like the colliding of gaseous molecule at the center of an imploding bubble of gas.

Originality/value

If a procedure that increases the number of collisions between gaseous molecules considerably will be developed, it may be that this procedure will be applicable for obtaining clean energy by annihilations of matter and antimatter.
EDSIM: expert database system for inventory management
Authors: Subramoniam Suresh , Krishnankutty K.V.
Published: July 2005

Purpose

Expert database system (EDS), which is still in its infancy, is developed and demonstrated for a business function by coupling expert systems (ES) and database systems.

Design/methodology/approach

An EDS for inventory management (EDSIM) using the fifth generation artificial intelligence (AI) language, Prolog, is developed. The convergence of logic programming and database techniques is focused in achieving the objective. EDSIM development is based on modular design and integration of several intelligent modules, with own knowledge base and shared dynamic database.

Findings

EDSIM developed demonstrates the peculiarities of such an EDS over a system developed using conventional procedural language. It shows that development of such systems has great deployment potential in the next generation enterprise systems where embedded intelligence is inevitable.

Research limitations/implications

Though no attempt is made to demonstrate distributed processing and interaction among various intelligent autonomous modules, an initiative in that direction definitely can kindle reengineering of today's enterprise system.

Practical implications

The language chosen for the development of EDSIM is Turbo Prolog™ and can be easily converted to a program in Visual Prolog™ which is the newer version of Turbo Prolog™. The advantage of such a conversion is that it will enable web readiness of the EDS there by facilitating e‐business in the web environment.

Originality/value

The benefits of the application of EDS, by the integration of ES and database systems in a fifth generation AI language, Prolog, paves way for capturing developments in AI and databases, simultaneously. This technology demonstrator has the potential to bring in an optimal mix of the above technologies in achieving major milestones while reengineering enterprise systems.
A new magical incubator?
Authors: Andrew Alex M.
Published: July 2005

Purpose

Building 20 of MIT was erected hurriedly during World War II to house the Radiation Laboratory which was the main US centre for research on radar. Later it housed the Research Laboratory of Electronics of MIT and was the site of a vast amount of innovative research, including much that laid foundations for cybernetics. The unpretentious building was demolished in recent years, and a bizarre and entirely different structure has replaced it. The new design is meant to encourage innovation by a quite different route. The purpose here is to show the importance in the history of cybernetics of what went on in Building 20, which can hardly be overstated, and to argue that for the new building it has to be a “hard act to follow”.

Design/methodology/approach

Prompted by an item in the Boston Globe, the old and new buildings are contrasted, with the part played by the old building illustrated by reminiscences.

Findings

The reference to the old building as a “magical incubator” is fully warranted.

Practical implications

An instructive contrast is offered between a highly successful but largely fortuitous research environment, and one that is planned in detail and has yet to prove its worth. One valuable planned feature of the old environment, namely a comprehensive “document room”, is described.

Originality/value

The account should be valuable as a historical record.
How quality improvement programs can affect general hospital performance
Authors: Naveh Eitan , Stern Zvi
Published: July 2005

Purpose

Given the enormous size of the health care industry, the problem of developing high‐quality, cost‐effective health care delivery systems is growing in importance. There is general consensus that health care systems require a continuous process of quality improvement (QI). Less agreement, however, surrounds the mechanisms to be implemented so that such a process is effective. This study aims to bring empirical evidence to support the hypothesis that a QI program in a general hospital – a special context of the health care delivery system – does not necessarily lead to better overall organizational performance results.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was done at the hospital level, and included all acute care hospitals in Israel. Data was collected in 16 of the country's 23 hospitals, a 70 percent response rate. The study compared hospital performance before and after the QI program implementation.

Findings

The study shows that QI creates meaningful improvement events. In addition, the research supports the hypothesis that increasing the number of QI activities (items) included in the QI program brings about more improvement events. The results do not support the hypothesis that high, rather than low, intensive implementation of QI activities leads to more improvement events.

Originality/value

The special context of general hospitals decreases the effects of a QI program on overall hospital performance, whereas QI activities function as triggers in initiating improvement events.
Is audit research? The relationships between clinical audit and social research
Authors: Hughes Rhidian
Published: July 2005

Purpose

Quality has an established history in health care. Audit, as a means of quality assessment, is well understood and the existing literature has identified links between audit and research processes. This paper reviews the relationships between audit and research processes, highlighting how audit can be improved through the principles and practice of social research.

Design/methodology/approach

The review begins by defining the audit process. It goes on to explore salient relationships between clinical audit and research, grouped into the following broad themes: ethical considerations, highlighting responsibilities towards others and the need for ethical review for audit; asking questions and using appropriate methods, emphasising transparency in audit methods; conceptual issues, including identifying problematic concepts, such as “satisfaction”, and the importance of reflexivity within audit; emphasising research in context, highlighting the benefits of vignettes and action research; complementary methods, demonstrating improvements for the quality of findings; and training and multidisciplinary working, suggesting the need for closer relationships between researchers and clinical practitioners.

Findings

Audit processes cannot be considered research. Both audit and research processes serve distinct purposes.

Originality/value

Attention to the principles of research when conducting audit are necessary to improve the quality of audit and, in turn, the quality of health care.
The effects of a randomised multi‐centre trial and international accreditation on availability and quality of clinical guidelines
Authors: Benedicte Juul Anne , Gluud Christian , Wetterslev Jørn , Callesen Torben , Jensen Gorm , Kofoed‐Enevoldsen Allan
Published: July 2005

Purpose

To examine the availability and quality of clinical guidelines on perioperative diabetes care in hospital units before and after a randomised clinical trial (RCT) and international accreditation.

Design/methodology/approach

Interventional “before‐after” study in 51 units (38 surgical and 13 anaesthetic) in nine hospitals participating in a RCT in the greater Copenhagen area; 27 of the units also underwent international accreditation.

Findings

The proportion of units with guidelines increased from 24/51 (47 percent) units before to 38/51 (75 percent) units after the trial. Among the 27 units without guidelines before the trial, significantly more accredited units compared to non‐accredited units had a guideline after the trial (9/10 (90 percent) compared to 5/17 (29 percent). The quality of the systematic development scale and the clinical scales improved significantly after the trial in both accredited units (both p<0.001) and in non‐accredited units (both p<0.02). The improvement of the systematic development scale was significantly higher in accredited than in non‐accredited units (p<0.01).

Originality/value

The combination of conducting both the DIPOM Trial and international accreditation led to a significant improvement of both dissemination and quality of guidelines on perioperative diabetic care.