bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Denial of racism and the Trump presidency
Authors: Konrad Alison M.
Published: February 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to document the racist undertones of Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign rhetoric and draw implications regarding its impact on equality, diversity, and inclusion. Most contemporary individuals reject explicitly racist beliefs and strive to present themselves as having egalitarian attitudes toward other races and ethnicities. However, commonly held implicit biases toward historically marginalized racioethnic groups drive negative effect that is often unconscious and unacknowledged. Inconsistency between the conscious and unconscious aspects of contemporary racism generates a population of individuals who are uncomfortable with their attitudes, creating an opening for politicians willing to leverage racist rhetoric and gain support by resolving this inconsistency.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper applies social psychological theory and research to address the questions of what attracts otherwise non-racist individuals to racist-tinged rhetoric. The paper also provides theory-based interventions for reducing the attractiveness and impact of racist political campaigns.

Findings

Supporters of racist politicians resolve the conflict between their negative feelings toward racioethnic minorities and their espoused anti-racist views by distancing themselves from racist rhetorical content in three ways: by denying that racist statements or actions occurred, denying that the statements or actions are racist, and/or by denying responsibility for racism and its effects. These techniques provide supporters with validation from an authority that they can express their negative affect toward out-groups and still consider themselves to be good people and not racists.

Practical implications

Distancing from racism has allowed contemporary American extremists to reframe themselves as victims of closed-minded progressives seeking to elevate undeserving and/or dangerous out-groups at the in-group’s expense. Effective anti-racism techniques are needed to counter implicit biases in order to limit the attractiveness of extremist views. Implicit biases can be effectively reduced through training in counter-stereotypic imaging, stereotype replacement, and structured inter-group interaction. Effectively countering denial of the facts involves affirming the audience’s belief system while building skepticism toward the sources of misinformation.

Social implications

While countering racist politicians requires commitment, these efforts are essential for protecting the identity of the USA as a society striving toward equality, diversity, and inclusion.

Originality/value

By articulating the social psychological principles underpinning racist-tinged populist rhetoric, this paper explains the attractiveness of racist statements by politicians, which tends to be under-estimated.
Boom or bust: demystifying Trump’s deplorable economics
Authors: ogilvie dt
Published: February 2018

Purpose

Two questions broadly drove this research: Donald Trump promised to fix the economy and create jobs, and he is ending or renegotiating trade treaties. Is he creating more jobs? How can Trump create a more inclusive economy? The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper closely examines Trump’s economic policies and draws from past Democratic and Republication track records to explain how Trump’s policies will contribute to greater income inequality.

Findings

By all measures, President Trump fails on measures of equality, diversity, and inclusion.

Originality/value

This original paper examines the implications of the Trump administration’s policies in the areas of tax cuts (for small- and medium-sized enterprises rather than large corporations), incentives to support small business growth, entrepreneurship training, education and skills training (to retool Americans), and infrastructure spending.
Antecedent and consequences of job crafting: an organizational level approach
Authors: Kim Haemi , Im Jinyoung , Qu Hailin , NamKoong Julie
Published: February 2018

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the conditions required for encouraging employees to engage in job crafting and examine the consequences of job crafting behavior. Job crafting is employees’ proactive behaviors at work associated with modifying tasks, managing social relations and changing job cognition.

Design/methodology/approach

A paper-and-pencil onsite survey was conducted by targeting frontline employees working in five-star hotels located in Seoul, South Korea. Descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used.

Findings

Perceived organizational support triggers employees’ job crafting. Task crafting leads to relational and cognitive crafting. Relational and cognitive crafting increases employees’ fit with the organization, whereas task crafting does not. Employees’ fit with the organization is positively associated with job satisfaction.

Research limitations/implications

Employees’ job crafting has positive consequences for a company by enhancing employees’ fit with the organization, resulting in increased job satisfaction. Thus, organizations need to show how much the organization cares about employees’ values, so that employees can initiate job crafting by utilizing organizational support. However, generalizing the results should be done cautiously.

Originality/value

This study focuses on the effect of an organizational-level predictor, whereas previous job crafting literature has focused mainly on an individual level or on task-related factors. It also empirically tests the causal relationships among the three facets of job crafting and provides their distinctive influences on person-organization fit that ultimately leads to job satisfaction.
The affective psychological process of self-image congruity and its influences on dining experience
Authors: Jeong EunHa , Jang SooCheong (Shawn)
Published: February 2018

Purpose

This study aims to examine the effects of self-image congruities (i.e. the match between the image of a product or brand and a customer’s image of themselves) as an affective psychological process in the context of a restaurant setting. The study proposed that a customer’s perception of congruity between his or her self-image and a restaurant could be a salient antecedent for eliciting positive affects toward restaurants, which may influences customers’ evaluations of the functional attributes of a restaurant. The relative effects of actual versus ideal self-image congruity on positive affects, along with the moderating effect of the type of restaurant, were also investigated.

Design/methodology/approach

An online survey was developed and distributed to randomly selected respondents in the USA and a total of 376 responses were used for the data analyses. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the relationships among five constructs: actual self-image congruity, ideal self-image congruity, positive affect, evaluation of the restaurant experience and revisiting intentions. To investigate the moderating effect of the restaurant type – more specifically, to examine differences in relative importance of actual versus ideal self-image congruity based on the type of restaurant (casual dining versus fine dining) – multiple group analyses were executed.

Findings

The results showed that both actual and ideal self-image congruity significantly influence positive affect, which has a significant influence on customers’ evaluations of the functional attributes of a restaurant. Actual self-image congruity effect on positive affect was significant in casual dining restaurants, but it was not significant in fine-dining restaurants. Ideal self-image congruity effect on positive affect was significant in both casual and fine-dining restaurant.

Practical implications

This study provides practical implications for developing an effective marketing communication in terms of promoting different segments of restaurant (casual dining vs fine-dining) based upon the customers’ perception of self-image congruity.

Originality/value

This paper includes a theoretical model that explains whether self-image congruity is a salient antecedent influencing restaurant customers’ positive feelings toward a restaurant brand. It also examined the relative effects of actual versus ideal self-image congruities in different restaurant settings.
Does traveler satisfaction differ in various travel group compositions?
Authors: Xu Xun
Published: February 2018

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the online customer review behavior and determinants of overall satisfaction with hotels of travelers in various travel group compositions.

Design/methodology/approach

The author collected data from online reviews of travelers in various travel group compositions from 600 hotels in 100 of the largest cities in the USA from Booking.com and used latent semantic analysis (LSA) to identify the positive and negative factors from online reviews of travelers in various travel group compositions. Then, text regression was used to determine the influential factors of overall satisfaction of travelers in various travel group compositions.

Findings

It was found in this study that not all the positive and negative textual factors mined from travelers’ online reviews significantly influenced their overall satisfaction. In addition, the determinants of traveler satisfaction were different when travelers were in different travel group compositions.

Research limitations/implications

The author found similar online review behavior, but different basic, excitement and performance factors of travelers in different travel group compositions.

Practical implications

This study helps hoteliers understand customers’ perception of the specific attributes of their products and services, which provides a guideline for businesses to design the priority rule to improve these corresponding attributes and use market segmentation strategy when dealing with customers in different travel group compositions.

Originality/value

The author examined and compared the online review behavior and determinants of satisfaction using the factors mined from online reviews between travelers in various travel group compositions. This study combined customer ratings with textual reviews and predicted customer ratings from the factors extracted from textual reviews using LSA and text regression.
The effect of hedonic and utilitarian values on satisfaction and loyalty of Airbnb users
Authors: Lee Seunghwan , Kim Dae-Young
Published: February 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between customer values, satisfaction and loyalty in the context of Airbnb.

Design/methodology/approach

The survey questionnaires were developed based upon review of previous studies. The samples were collected from US- based Airbnb users. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Findings

The result of this study indicates that first, Airbnb users’ hedonic value has a positive impact on satisfaction and loyalty, while utilitarian value influences only on satisfaction. Second, this study also shows that product involvement plays as a moderating role in the paths between hedonic value and customer satisfaction.

Research limitations/implications

Study findings may help researchers understand the roles of hedonic and utilitarian values and their impacts on satisfaction and loyalty in the context of Airbnb. This study also contributes to Airbnb marketers in fulfilling users’ expectations about the company.

Originality/value

This research contributes to the hospitality literature by expanding the realm of research on Airbnb, which is a unique company applying the sharing economy concept in the lodging industry.
Agency or stewardship?
Authors: Choi Danny Woosik , Chatfield Hyun Kyung , Chatfield Robert Evans
Published: February 2018

Purpose

This study aims to empirically investigate agency and stewardship theories in the US lodging market by examining the influence of fiscal and non-fiscal leadership structures on the debt financing decisions of lodging firms.

Design/methodology/approach

Secondary financial data have been collected for USA-based lodging firms. Subsequently, bivariate correlation, pooled ordinary least square) and endogeneity analyses have been performed on the data.

Findings

The findings support the significant influence of some corporate governance attributes on the capital structure of US lodging firms and show the limited applicability of agency and stewardship theories.

Practical implications

Theoretical and managerial implications are suggested in terms of balancing leadership structure attributes from the agency and stewardship theories, the capital structure of lodging firms and the future research.

Originality/value

Despite its importance considering the intensive capital and relatively high liabilities needed for success in the lodging industry, the influence of leadership structure on capital structure has not been examined either empirically or theoretically. Leadership structure attributes, both fiscal and non-fiscal, are included in the study to gain a richer understanding of their influence. The outcomes of the analysis suggest managerial implications for leadership structure as well as theoretical generalizability for agency and stewardship theories within the lodging industry.
Investigating the factors of hospitality company-branded Line stickers that influence users’ attitudes toward hospitality companies
Authors: Wang Hsiu-Yuan
Published: February 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine a new research model which includes both hedonic and utilitarian determinants that influence Line users’ attitudes toward hospitality companies that offer free Line stickers for potential users.

Design/methodology/approach

To target the right population, Line users who had used hospitality company-branded Line stickers are recruited as participants. Data from 372 usable questionnaires are tested against the research model by using the structural equation modeling approach.

Findings

The results show that all of the proposed variables, perceived usefulness, perceived social presence, perceived richness, perceived enjoyment, perceived novelty and perceived appeal, were found to be critical factors significantly influencing users’ attitudes.

Research limitations/implications

This study targets Line users who had experiences in using hospitality company-branded Line stickers. Therefore, a validation using another large sample gathered elsewhere is required to generalize the findings.

Practical implications

The findings can give hospitality managers an increased understanding of the attitudes of Line users toward the companies providing stickers to them; the results may be used as a guideline to develop more appropriate business strategies for hospitality organizations with which to promote their products/services.

Originality/value

The proposed model is new; little research has been done on examining Line users’ attitudes toward hospitality companies that offer free Line stickers for users. This study contributes to an understanding of the factors that actually influence users’ attitudes toward those hospitality companies offering brand Line stickers.
Social evaluations of restaurant managers
Authors: Bufquin Diego , DiPietro Robin , Orlowski Marissa , Partlow Charles
Published: February 2018

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the effects of restaurant managers’ warmth and competence on employees’ turnover intentions mediated by job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The study aims to enhance existing literature related to the influence of social perceptions that casual dining restaurant employees may adopt regarding their restaurant managers.

Design/methodology/approach

The data came from 781 employees of a large US-based casual dining restaurant franchise group that owned 43 restaurants. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed, followed by multilevel path and post hoc mediation analyses, to assess the effects of the proposed model.

Findings

Results demonstrated that managers’ warmth and competence represented a single factor, instead of two distinct constructs, thus contradicting several sociopsychological studies. Moreover, managers’ warmth and competence had an indirect influence on employees’ turnover intentions through both job satisfaction and organizational commitment.

Practical implications

Knowing that employees develop improved job attitudes and lower turnover intentions when they evaluate their managers as warm and competent individuals, restaurant operators should focus on both of these social characteristics when designing interviewing processes, management training, and performance appraisal programs.

Originality/value

By studying a casual dining restaurant franchise group that operates a single brand, thus minimizing variation in policies and procedures, this paper fulfills an identified need to examine two fundamental social dimensions that people often use in professional settings, and which have not been vastly studied in organizational behavior or hospitality literature.
An investigation on customer revisit intention to theme restaurants
Authors: Meng Bo , Choi Kyuhwan
Published: February 2018

Purpose

This paper aims to examine theme restaurant customers’ decision-making process in light of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) model.

Design/methodology/approach

This investigation is conducted by an on-site survey with 357 theme restaurant customers who have a dining experience in China. The current study used Anderson and Gerbing’s (1998) two-step method.

Findings

Study results indicate the extended TPB model surpasses the TPB in predicting customers’ behavioral intention. Findings not only identified attitude and involvement as useful mediators in the model but also provided evidence of possible relationships in the proposed model.

Research limitations/implications

The relationships in the extended TPB offer practical solutions for theme restaurant managers and ways to increase the customers’ intention to revisit their establishments.

Originality/value

With servicescape as an external factor and perceived authenticity and involvement as psychological factors incorporated into the TPB, the proposed framework supported the analysis of those underlying factors in the context of theme restaurants toward clarifying the formation of customer’s intention to revisit those restaurants.
Workplace incivility as a moderator of the relationships between polychronicity and job outcomes
Authors: Arasli Huseyin , Hejraty Namin Boshra , Abubakar A. Mohammed
Published: February 2018

Purpose

On the basis of person–job fit theory and conservation of resource theory, this study aims to develop and test a model to examine the impact of polychronicity on frontline employees’ job performance in hotel industry and simultaneously, investigate the moderating effects of supervisor, coworker and customer incivility as stressors in the relationship between polychronicity and employees’ job performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Data are obtained in North Cyprus from 262 frontline employees working in four- and five-star hotels.

Findings

The results suggest that polychronicity refers to employees’ performance. Customer incivility negatively and significantly influences job performance, but coworker and supervisor incivilities do not. Unlike coworker incivility, both customer and supervisor incivilities moderate the relationship between polychronicity and job performance; that is, high customer and/or supervisor incivility weaken the positive relationship between polychronicity and job performance.

Practical implications

Regarding the critical role of polychronic frontline employees, hotel management should recruit the right candidates and endeavor to retain such employees by offering monetary and non-monetary incentives, training and empowering. They may implement a zero-tolerance policy that simultaneously supports both parties (customers and employees).

Originality/value

The association between employee quality (i.e. polychronicity), job performance and incivility is often overlooked in the hospitality research. This study is the first attempt to consider the joint moderating effect of important social stressors (customer, coworker and supervisor incivility) in the hotel industry.
Foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurants and patrons’ propensity to return
Authors: Harris Kimberly J. , Ali Faizan , Ryu Kisang
Published: February 2018

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the decision-making process consumers engage in when choosing to return to a restaurant that has experienced a foodborne illness outbreak.

Design/methodology/approach

A scenario-based survey was conducted to collect data from 1,025 respondents on their propensity to return to restaurants that have been cited for serving foods that caused a foodborne illness outbreak. Partial least squares-based structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.

Findings

The findings of this study show perceived vulnerability, perceived severity and attitude are statistically significant, whereas subjective norms and perceived behavioral control are not statistically significant predictors of consumers’ intention to patronize a restaurant that has experienced a foodborne illness outbreak.

Research limitations/implications

This study examined consumers’ intentions to return to a restaurant that has experienced a foodborne illness outbreak. Findings are based on a scenario-based survey, and thus, the results cannot be generalized.

Originality/value

By implementing protection motivation theory (PMT) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB), findings from this study extend the understanding of patrons’ revisit intentions regarding restaurants with foodborne illness outbreak.
Social entrepreneur and gender: what’s personality got to do with it?
Authors: Bernardino Susana , Freitas Santos J. , Cadima Ribeiro J.
Published: February 2018

Purpose

Research on economic entrepreneurship identifies a gender gap that is favorable to men. In the social entrepreneurship arena, the existing evidence is slightly fuzzy, as this gender gap is less preeminent. This paper aims to identify how gender differences in social entrepreneurial ventures creation are explained by different personality traits, by analyzing the extent to which female and male social entrepreneurs exhibit the same personality traits and whether potential differences are able to explain the differences in predisposition for the creation of new social entrepreneurial ventures.

Design/methodology/approach

A review of the literature on gender differences and personality traits in social entrepreneurship details the main theoretical developments and builds the hypotheses. Based on the Big Five model, the investigation uses a hypothesis testing quantitative approach. Primary data were collected through a questionnaire that was e-mailed and applied to the social entrepreneurs engaged in the creation of social ventures in Portugal.

Findings

The data gathered suggest that both female and male social entrepreneurs have personalities characterized by high levels of openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion and emotional stability. Based on the analysis of variance (ANOVA) between the two groups and logistic regression, the investigation reveals that women and men who launch a new social venture only differ in one personality dimension – agreeableness – wherein women scored more highly. No significant differences are found in the other personality traits.

Research limitations/implications

The research assumes that most aspects of human personality structure are represented in the Big Five model.

Practical implications

The knowledge about whether gender differences are explained by different personality traits is critical to public entities that might design appropriate public policies to stimulate social entrepreneurship. Also, social entrepreneurs’ capacity building programs should be delineated in accordance with a deeper understanding about gender and personality traits differences.

Social implications

The knowledge of the factors that affects the creation of new social ventures has an important potential contribution on social value creation and the promotion of gender equality.

Originality/value

This paper links two important topics – gender and entrepreneurs’ personality traits – scarcely explored in the social entrepreneurship literature. Thus, the paper adds new empirical evidence to support (or not) the belief that personality and gender matter in the decision to launch a new social venture.
Crisis communication and ethics: the role of public relations
Authors: Jin Yan , Pang Augustine , Smith Joshua
Published: February 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the veracity of the contingency model of ethical crisis communication by examining the factors of influence in a time of crisis including what constitutes ethics in a time of crisis; the role of public relations (PR) practitioners as the “moral conscience” of an organization and perceptions of the PR’ role within top management.

Design/methodology/approach

In-depth interviews were conducted among ten senior PR managers with crisis communication experience in North America.

Findings

This research identifies and investigates six ethical variables – the nature of the crisis, the role of top management, the activism of stakeholders, government regulation/intervention, the diversity of cultures and the exposure to external business environments – and their potential influences on an organization’s communication practices.

Research limitations/implications

The qualitative approach does not produce generalizable results. In addition, the authors could have interviewed more people, although the authors have reached information saturation in analyzing the interview data based on the ten interviews conducted.

Practical implications

Insights from this exploratory study contribute to answering the “how” questions with empirical data that enhance the clarity on the roadmap of ethical factors in crisis communication practice.

Originality/value

Unlike other conceptual work that explores moral philosophies in ethics, this study aims to offer a practical approach – rather than a philosophical argument and persuasion – that is rooted in the practitioner’s world.
Better than before: the resilient organization in crisis mode
Authors: Koronis Epaminondas , Ponis Stavros
Published: February 2018

Purpose

The paper aims to adopt a strategic view of organizational survival and argue that preparedness, responsiveness, adaptability and learning abilities constitute organizational drivers of resilience and provide a new direction on crisis management.

Design/methodology/approach

As a conceptual and literature exploration, the methodological focus is to combine various concepts within a unified model for resilience.

Findings

The proposed conceptual model highlights the need for strategic reconfigurations toward the construction of a resilience culture and the development of a supporting social capital in organizations. It also portrays organizational survival and sustainability as being dependent on strategic characteristics rather than on the managerial ability to handle situations and manage crisis.

Research limitations/implications

In this paper, implications, methodological concerns in the study of resilience and further research directions have been presented.

Practical implications

The paper approaches a new way of thinking about crises and provides a set of cultural and organizational characteristics that would increase resilience and crisis management abilities.

Originality/value

While organizations are nowadays more than ever affected by disruptions and crises, their inherent ability and strategies to protect their sustainability have been undertheorized. This paper aims at contributing to a growing and fruitful discussion.
Earnings quality and managerial access to debt financing: empirical evidence from Iran
Authors: Salehi Mahdi , Timachi Maryam , Farhangdoust Shayan
Published: February 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to establish a linkage between two rarely researched areas, i.e. earnings quality (EQ) and access to external and internal debt financing. Specifically, the authors aim to examine whether the quality of a firm’s reported earnings is significantly associated with its access to both private and bank debt financing.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors test the hypotheses by employing panel data analysis for a sample of 108 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) during 2006-2015. The tests were conducted by using R econometric software.

Findings

After controlling for some firm-specific factors and consistent with the primary expectations, the results reveal a significant and positive relationship between EQ and managerial access to external (bank) debt financing. In addition, the findings indicate that EQ is negatively associated with internal debt financing which is measured as the changes in firm retained earnings.

Research limitations/implications

Although the authors cautiously conducted the present study, there are some limitations that merit further consideration. First, the authors collected the data manually from 14 categories of industries in the TSE and, accordingly, an aggregate analysis across multiple categories of industries might have missed industry-specific and unique issues. Second, the authors used a narrow conceptualization of accruals quality which merely assesses a firm’s EQ. The measures can be enhanced by including more actionable proxies. Third, since the data on debt financing were collected from two different sources, this might have caused common method variance in the results procedurally.

Originality/value

Since the fundamental institutional assumptions underpinning the Western and even East Asia debt contracting and EQ models are not valid in the institutional environment of Iran, the findings could provide substantial implications for the understanding of both debt financing and the quality of earnings. These significant institutional and ownership differences are the factors affecting firms’ leverage and capital choice decisions. Indeed, the study has laid some groundwork upon which a more detailed evaluation of the Iranian firms’ financial structure could be based.
Promoting and marketing a revolutionary cooking appliance in the 1840s Stanislas Sorel’s portable stove “Le Cordon Bleu” (1834–1849)
Authors: Spennemann Dirk HR
Published: February 2018

Purpose

This paper aims to describe the nature and significance of Sorel’s cooking appliance and to examine the promotion and marketing options used by Sorel to make it an appliance that was “widely used in private residences and by small eating houses.” It will highlight the role of the individual and will demonstrate that marketing and promotion strategies that are modulated by the social ambitions of the manufacturer.

Design/methodology/approach

The basis of this research is extensive quantitative and qualitative analysis of primary sources, mainly the advertisements placed by Sorel, supported by information in contemporary newspapers and journals.

Findings

Stanislas Sorel’s invention of an early form of thermostat allowed him to develop a stove that could cook a four-course family dinner largely unsupervised, an invention which was poised to revolutionise the lives of many households. Sorel was primarily an inventor striving for acceptance in the scientific world, with limited skills in the commercialisation of his inventions. His promotion and marketing efforts reflect both the social realities of the time and his own ambitions.

Originality/value

There has been very little research into the way small French inventors and manufacturers approached the marketing of their products. The paper provides a unique insight into the promotion techniques of a mid-nineteenth-century French inventor-cum-entrepreneur and highlights the role of the individual and how actions are constrained by ambition and opportunity. The paper provides an example of how research into how specific individuals can inform the larger history of marketing.
Forward modelling and imaging of ground‐penetrating radar in tunnel ahead geological prospecting
Authors: Liu Bin , Zhang Fengkai , Li Shucai , Li Yao , Xu Shan , Nie Lichao , Zhang Chongmin , Zhang Qingsong
Published: February 2018

Adverse geologies are often encountered during tunnel construction, which could seriously endanger the construction. To ensure the safety, it is essential to detect adverse geologies and their water‐bearing situation ahead the tunnel face. Ground‐penetrating radar is a suitable instrument, but the accurate interpretation of its detection results is difficult. In this paper, at first, an improved back projection imaging algorithm is proposed, which can make reflection waves closer to the real geological boundaries with few artificial clutters. And then, forward modelling of ground‐penetrating radar is carried out for typical adverse geologies, such as karst caves, faults, fractured rock masses, fracture network, and water‐bearing body. Their corresponding response features are obtained, accumulating experience for geological interpretation. The above two methods provide the basis for target identification and geological interpretation. In the last part, the application of the above two methods in several engineering cases are given, and their effectiveness is verified.
Development of a language screening instrument for Swedish 4‐year‐olds
Authors: Lavesson Ann , Lövdén Martin , Hansson Kristina
Published: February 2018

Background

The Swedish Program for health surveillance of preschool children includes screening of language and communication abilities. One important language screening is carried out at age 4 years as part of a general screening conducted by health nurses at child health centres. The instruments presently in use for this screening mainly focus on expressive phonology. This may result in both over‐referral of children with phonological difficulties and under‐referral of children with language disorders (LDs), involving difficulties with vocabulary, grammar and/or language comprehension. Previous research has proposed non‐word repetition as a clinical marker for LD. It has also been found that higher predictive power is achieved when non‐word repetition is combined with the assessment of lexical/semantic skills. Taking these findings into account, the construction of a language screening instrument may yield more adequate referrals to speech–language therapists (SLTs).

Aims

To construct a new standardized language screening instrument for 4‐year‐olds and to test its properties.

Methods & Procedures

An instrument was developed and revised after piloting. A population of 352 children was screened at the regular 4‐year check‐up by 11 health nurses. The final sample consisted of 328 children aged 46–53 months (23% multilingual). Children performing below a preliminary cut‐off were referred to an SLT (n = 52). Five SLTs carried out an assessment on average within 5 weeks using a gold standard language test battery. Children who screened negatively were followed up with a parent questionnaire at age 5;6.

Outcomes & Results

Thirty‐one true‐positives and 11 false‐positives were identified after SLT assessment. A further six children were identified as false‐negatives (two through referral to an SLT and four through parent questionnaire at age 5;6). A receiver‐operating characteristics curve with a C statistic of .94 was calculated. Based on optimal cut‐off, the sensitivity of the screening instrument was found to be .84, and specificity was .96. Multilingual children performed similar to monolingual children; boys performed significantly lower than girls; and children with a family history of language‐related problems performed lower than those without. Interrater reliability was high, as was Cronbach's alpha.

Conclusions & Implications

The screening instrument seems sufficiently valid for its purpose to identify children who need further assessment by an SLT. A follow‐up study including SLT assessment for all children to check for false‐negatives would be interesting in future, as would studies comparing results from the 4‐year screening with those from earlier screens.
A subunit of the HOPS endocytic tethering complex, FgVps41, is important for fungal development and plant infection in Fusarium graminearum
Authors: Li Bing , Dong Xin , Li Xinrui , Chen Huaigu , Zhang Haifeng , Zheng Xiaobo , Zhang Zhengguang
Published: February 2018

The signals by which eukaryotic cells communicate with the environment are usually mediated by vesicle trafficking to be attenuated or terminated. However, vesicle trafficking‐mediated signal transmission during interactions between pathogens and host plants is poorly understood. Here, we identified and characterized the vacuole sorting protein FgVps41, which is the yeast HOPS tethering complex subunit Vps41 homolog in Fusarium graminearum. Targeted gene deletion demonstrated that FgVps41 is important for vegetative growth, asexual/sexual development, conidial morphology, plant infection and deoxynivalenol production. Cellular localization and cytological examinations revealed that FgVps41 localizes to early/late endosomes and vacuole membrane, and is recruited to prevacuolar compartments and vacuole membrane by interacting with FgRab7 in F. graminearum. Furthermore, we found FgVps41 mediates vacuole membrane fusion and sorting of FgApeI, a cargo protein involving in the cytosol‐to‐vacuole targeting pathway. In addition, we found that FgVps41 interacts with FgYck3, a vacuolar type I casein kinase, which regulates vesicle fusion in the AP‐3 pathway. Deletion of FgYck3 showed similar phenotypes to the ΔFgvps41 mutant, and both FgRab7 and FgYck3 regulate the normal localization of FgVps41. Collectively, our results demonstrate that FgVps41 acts as a HOPS tethering complex subunit and is important for the development of infection‐related morphogenesis in F. graminearum.
Culturally embedded health beliefs, self‐care and the use of anti‐ageing medicine among Australian and Japanese older adults
Authors: Omori Maho , Dempsey Deborah
Published: February 2018

Adopting Kleinman's and Lock's ideas that there are cultural variations in understandings of health care and the medicalisation of ageing bodies, this study compares and contrasts older adults’ use of anti‐ageing medicine in two cultural settings. Based on 42 interviews conducted in Australia and Japan with adults aged 60 and over, findings revealed distinct pathways to initiating anti‐ageing medicine use between the two cohorts which reflect different attitudes to the medicalisation of ageing in the two settings. In Australia where consultation of medical doctors for major and minor ailments is routine for many older adults, supplement use was initiated on doctor's advice, or reactionary, in that dissatisfaction with doctors’ advice was the impetus. By contrast, many Japanese elders did not seek the advice of medical practitioners for minor health issues, considering them instead to be part of a natural process of ageing, and viewed their supplement use as co‐extensive with their use of Shokuji‐ryohou or a traditional corrective diet. Despite these cultural differences, both the Australian and Japanese elders resisted more extreme manifestations of the biomedicalisation of ageing and took anti‐ageing medicine to ward off the perceived danger of surgery in later life.
The role of metformin and statins in the incidence of epithelial ovarian cancer in type 2 diabetes: a cohort and nested case–control study
Authors: Urpilainen E , Marttila M , Hautakoski A , Arffman M , Sund R , Ilanne‐Parikka P , Arima R , Kangaskokko J , Puistola U , Läärä E , Hinkula M
Published: February 2018

Objective

To obtain evidence of the effects of metformin and statins on the incidence of ovarian cancer in women with type 2 diabetes (T2D).

Design

A retrospective cohort study and nested case–control study.

Setting

The data were obtained from a diabetes database (FinDM) combining information from several nationwide registers.

Population

A cohort of 137 643 women over 40 years old and diagnosed with T2D during 1996–2011 in Finland.

Methods

In full cohort analysis Poisson regression was used to estimate the hazard ratios (HR) in relation to ever use of metformin, insulin other oral anti‐diabetic medication or statins. In the nested case–control analysis 20 controls were matched to each case of ovarian cancer. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate HRs in relation to medication use and cumulative use of different medications. The estimates were adjusted for age and duration of T2D.

Main outcome measure

Incidence of ovarian cancer.

Results

In all, 303 women were diagnosed with ovarian cancer during the follow up. Compared with other forms of oral anti‐diabetic medication, metformin (HR 1.02, 95% CI: 0.72–1.45) was not found to be associated with the incidence of ovarian cancer. Neither was there evidence for statins to affect the incidence (HR 0.99, 95% CI: 0.78–1.25). In nested case–control analysis the results were essentially similar.

Conclusions

No evidence of an association between the use of metformin or statins and the incidence of ovarian cancer in women with T2D was found.

Tweetable abstract

No evidence found for metformin or statins reducing the incidence of ovarian cancer.
Habitat filtering of bacterioplankton communities above polymetallic nodule fields and sediments in the Clarion‐Clipperton zone of the Pacific Ocean
Authors: Lindh Markus V. , Maillot Brianne M. , Smith Craig R. , Church Matthew J.
Published: February 2018

Deep‐sea mining of commercially valuable polymetallic nodule fields will generate a seabed sediment plume into the water column. Yet, the response of bacterioplankton communities, critical in regulating energy and matter fluxes in marine ecosystems, to such disturbances is unknown. Metacommunity theory, traditionally used in general ecology for macroorganisms, offers mechanistic understanding on the relative role of spatial differences compared with local environmental conditions (habitat filtering) for community assembly. We examined bacterioplankton metacommunities using 16S rRNA amplicons from the Clarion‐Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the eastern Pacific Ocean and in global ocean transect samples to determine sensitivity of these assemblages to environmental perturbations. Habitat filtering was the main assembly mechanism of bacterioplankton community composition in the epi‐ and mesopelagic waters of the CCZ and the Tara Oceans transect. Bathy‐ and abyssopelagic bacterioplankton assemblages were mainly assembled by undetermined metacommunity types or neutral and dispersal‐driven patch‐dynamics for the CCZ and the Malaspina transect. Environmental disturbances may alter the structure of upper‐ocean microbial assemblages, with potentially even more substantial, yet unknown, impact on deep‐sea communities. Predicting such responses in bacterioplankton assemblage dynamics can improve our understanding of microbially‐mediated regulation of ecosystem services in the abyssal seabed likely to be exploited by future deep‐sea mining operations.
The metabolic pathways utilized by Salmonella Typhimurium during infection of host cells
Authors: Thompson Arthur , Fulde Marcus , Tedin Karsten
Published: February 2018

Only relatively recently has research on the metabolism of intracellular bacterial pathogens within their host cells begun to appear in the published literature. This reflects in part the experimental difficulties encountered in separating host metabolic processes from those of the resident pathogen. One of the most genetically tractable and thoroughly studied intracellular bacterial pathogens, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium), has been at the forefront of metabolic studies within eukaryotic host cells. In this review, we offer a synthesis of what has been discovered to date regarding the metabolic adaptation of S. Typhimurium to survival and growth within the infected host. We discuss many studies in the context of techniques used, types of host cells, how host metabolites contribute to intracellular survival and proliferation of the pathogen and how bacterial metabolism affects the virulence and persistence of the pathogen.
Prevalence of psychotic‐like experiences and their correlations with internalizing problems: A study of early adolescents in rural area in Karawang, Indonesia
Authors: Maharani Lerivia , Turnip Sherly Saragih
Published: February 2018

Introduction

Adolescents who live in rural areas have been found to experience more mental health problems than those who live in urban areas. In Indonesia, adolescents who live in rural areas have limited facilities to access mental health services. On the other hand, there is still a strong belief in the rural communities that mental health problems are the consequence of demonic possession, having committed a sin, lack of faith, etc. Rural communities tend to seek traditional remedies such as advice from traditional healers or witchdoctors. Unfortunately, previous studies have indicated that the onset of most mental health problems is during adolescence, and this includes psychotic symptoms that are often manifested as psychotic‐like experiences (PLEs).

Methods

The Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire was used to examine internalizing problems. PLEs were used to examine psychotic symptoms. Data were collected in 3 junior high schools in Karawang. A total of 270 adolescents (aged between 11 and 16 years old) who live in the rural area in Karawang participated in this research.

Results

The study found that the prevalence of adolescents with at least 2 symptoms of PLEs was 7%. The result of the study indicated that there is no significant correlation between psychotic‐like experiences and internalizing problems (r = .075, P = .22).

Discussion

PLEs significantly correlated with peer‐relationship problems rather than with internalizing problems. Further investigation is needed to examine the factors that contribute to PLEs in rural settings.
Statistical genetics and its application to neuroimmunology
Authors: Ogawa Kotaro , Okada Yukinori
Published: February 2018

Statistical genetics is a field involving the analysis of genetic data. With the development of next‐generation sequencing and single‐nucleotide polymorphism microarrays, the amount of genetic data is increasing rapidly. Genome‐wide association studies are one example of the successful application of an approach based on statistical genetics. To shed light on neuroinflammatory diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, >100 000 people have been enrolled in the genome‐wide association study meta‐analysis, and 200 loci associated with multiple sclerosis have been detected. To utilize these genetic data for clinical medicine, development of novel methods of statistical genetics is warranted. Human leukocyte antigen imputation and in silico drug repositioning are good examples of such approaches.