bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Experimentally engineered mutations in a ubiquitin hydrolase, UBP-1, modulatein vivoresistance to artemisinin and chloroquine inPlasmodium berghei
Authors: Simwela Nelson V. , Hughes Katie R. , Roberts A. Brett , Rennie Michael T. , Barrett Michael P. , Waters Andrew P. 
Published: December 2019

AbstractAs resistance to artemisinins (current frontline drugs in malaria treatment) emerges in south East Asia (SEA), there is an urgent need to identify the genetic determinants and understand the molecular mechanisms underpinning such resistance. Such insights could lead to prospective interventions to contain resistance and prevent the eventual spread to other malaria endemic regions. Artemisinin reduced susceptibility in SEA has been primarily linked to mutations inP. falciparumKelch13, which is currently widely recognised as a molecular marker of artemisinin resistance. However, 2 mutations in a ubiquitin hydrolase, UBP-1, have been previously associated with artemisinin resistance in a rodent model of malaria and some cases of UBP-1 mutation variants associating with artemisinin treatment failure have been reported in Africa and SEA. Here, CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing and pre-emptive drug pressures was used to test these artemisinin resistance associated mutations in UBP-1 inP. bergheisensitive linesin vivo. The data demonstrate that the V2721F UBP-1 mutation results in artemisinin resistance and some low-level resistance to chloroquine, while the V2752F mutation results in high-level resistance to chloroquine and moderate resistance to artemisinins. Genetic reversal of the V2752F mutation restored chloroquine sensitivity in these mutant lines while simultaneous introduction of both mutations could not be achieved and appears to be lethal. Interestingly, these mutations carry a detrimental growth defect, which would possibly explain their lack of expansion in natural infection settings. This is the first independent, direct experimental evidence on the role of UBP-1 in artemisinin and chloroquine resistance underin vivoconditions.
3D Bioprinting of Architected Hydrogels from Entangled Microstrands
Authors: Kessel B. , Lee M. , Bonato A. , Tinguely Y. , Tosoratti E. , Zenobi-Wong M. 
Published: December 2019

AbstractHydrogels are an excellent biomimetic of the extracellular matrix and have found great use in tissue engineering. Nanoporous monolithic hydrogels have limited mass transport, restricting diffusion of key biomolecules. Structured microbead-hydrogels overcome some of these limitations, but suffer from lack of controlled anisotropy. Here we introduce a novel method for producing architected hydrogels based on entanglement of microstrands. The microstrands are mouldable and form a porous structure which is stable in water. Entangled microstrands are useable as bioinks for 3D bioprinting, where they align during the extrusion process. Cells co-printed with the microstrands show excellent viability and augmented matrix deposition resulting in a modulus increase from 2.7 kPa to 780.2 kPa after 6 weeks of culture. Entangled microstands are a new class of bioinks with unprecedented advantages in terms of scalability, material versatility, mass transport, showing foremost outstanding properties as a bioink for 3D printed tissue grafts.
IMMUNE SYSTEM CHALLENGE IMPROVES COGNITIVE-BEHAVIOURAL RESPONSES AND REVERSES MALARIA-INDUCED COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT IN MICE
Authors: de Sousa Vieira Luciana Pereira , Ribeiro-Gomes Flávia Lima , de Almeida Roberto Farina , e Souza Tadeu Mello , Werneck Guilherme Loureiro , de Souza Diogo Onofre Gomes , Daniel-Ribeiro Cláudio Tadeu 
Published: December 2019

ABSTRACTElements of the immune system are necessary for healthy neurocognitive function, and the pattern of the immune response triggered by different exogenous stimuli may induce regulatory or deregulatory signals that can affect nervous functions. Here we investigate the effect of immune stimulation on behavioural parameters in healthy mice and its impact on cognitive sequelae resulting from non-severe experimental malaria. We show that the immune modulation induced by a specific combination of immune stimuli, classically described as capable of inducing a major type 2 immune response, can improve the long-term memory of healthy adult mice and prevent the negative cognitive-behavioural impairments caused by a single episode of mildPlasmodium bergheiANKA malaria. This finding has implications for the development of immunogens as cognitive adjuvants.
Dual RNA-seq in an aphid parasitoid reveals plastic and evolved adaptation to symbiont-conferred resistance
Authors: Dennis Alice B. , Käch Heidi , Vorburger Christoph 
Published: December 2019

AbstractCoevolving taxa offer the opportunity to study the genetic basis of rapid reciprocal adaptation. We have used experimental evolution to examine adaptation in the parasitoid waspLysiphlebus fabarumto resistance conferred by the protective endosymbiontHamiltonella defensain its aphid hostAphis fabae. To examine a key stage in parasitoid infection, we have used RNA-seq to study gene expression in 4-5 day old parasitoid larvae contained in still living aphids. With this dual RNA-seq we can simultaneously view expression in individual experimentally evolved parasitoids and the aphids that house them. This gives a view of the sweeping changes in both taxa accompanying successful or unsuccessful infections. Among successful larvae, we find that experimentally evolved populations adapted toH. defensa-protected hosts differ in the expression of genes that include putative toxins and genes to cope with stress. These differences remain even when the larvae are developing in aphids possessing no defensive endosymbionts, suggesting that they are genetically based. In contrast, plastic responses between parasitoids reared in hosts with and withoutH. defensaare relatively small. Although aphids rely largely on their secondary endosymbionts for defense against parasitoids, we identify expression differences in aphids housing different parasitoid phenotypes. Together, these results demonstrate that wild parasitoid populations possess the genetic variation for rapid adaptation to host resistance, resulting in genetically based differences in gene expression that increase their success in parasitizing symbiont-protected host aphids.
Intracellular Energy Variability Modulates Cellular Decision-Making Capacity
Authors: Kerr Ryan , Jabbari Sara , Johnston Iain G. 
Published: December 2019

ABSTRACTCells are able to generate phenotypic diversity both during development and in response to stressful and changing environments, aiding survival. The biologically and medically vital process of a cell assuming a functionally important fate from a range of phenotypic possibilities can be thought of as a cell decision. To make these decisions, a cell relies on energy dependent pathways of signalling and expression. However, energy availability is often overlooked as a modulator of cellular decision-making. As cells can vary dramatically in energy availability, this limits our knowledge of how this key biological axis affects cell behaviour. Here, we consider the energy dependence of a highly generalisable decision-making regulatory network, and show that energy variability changes the sets of decisions a cell can make and the ease with which they can be made. Increasing intracellular energy levels can increase the number of stable phenotypes it can generate, corresponding to increased decision-making capacity. For this decision-making architecture, a cell with intracellular energy below a threshold is limited to a singular phenotype, potentially forcing the adoption of a specific cell fate. We suggest that common energetic differences between cells may explain some of the observed variability in cellular decision-making, and demonstrate the importance of considering energy levels in several diverse biological decision-making phenomena.
Supplier performance assessment
Authors: Romule Kristina , Bak Ozlem , Colicchia Claudia , Shaw Sarah 
Published: December 2019

PurposeThe discussion of supplier performance assessment and implementation challenges has been evidenced well in the academic literature. However, the analysis of supplier performance assessment has been limited in terms of inclusion of suppliers’ perspective, especially in terms of what key performance indicators they deem to be relevant and aligned with their goals. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to shed light on supplier performance assessment, taking into account both manufacturing company’s and suppliers’ perspective, to evaluate to what extent the utilised performance measures are beneficial to all parties.Design/methodology/approachBased on literature review on supplier performance assessment, ten categories of performance measures were established and explored in a case study involving a UK manufacturing company and its suppliers. A questionnaire was distributed to the manufacturing company and their 30 suppliers, resulting with a total of 41 responses.FindingsFrom the established ten categories only five categories were highly rated which were: net profits, flexibility and responsiveness, delivery performance and time and cycle time, product quality and availability, which were aligned to financial and internal business process categories.Research limitations/implicationsThis study focused on a UK-based company and its relationship with its suppliers and how performance measures were assessed within this context. A further study needs to be conducted in terms of comparing the results of the study to other companies’ supplier performance assessment.Originality/valueThe research on the topic of supplier performance assessment often relates to measurement and highlights measures for assessing suppliers’ performance to a particular industry or area of performance measurement. Hence, this study embeds three distinctive angles including the academic literature on supplier performance assessment, suppliers’ and the manufacturing company’s perspectives.
E-procurement in small and medium sized enterprises; facilitators, obstacles and effect on performance
Authors: Sánchez-Rodríguez Cristóbal , Martínez-Lorente Angel Rafael , Hemsworth David 
Published: December 2019

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze e-procurement in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and its relationship with top management support, IT obstacles and strategic purchasing and the effect of e-procurement on performance (procurement performance and business performance).Design/methodology/approachThe hypotheses were tested using a sample of 199 managers from SMEs in manufacturing.FindingsThe results indicated a significant relationship between e-procurement in SMEs and top management support, IT obstacles and strategic purchasing. Similarly, the authors found a positive relationship between e-procurement and procurement process performance and business performance.Practical implicationsThe findings stress to SME managers, the need to pay attention to top management support, IT obstacles and strategic purchasing when implementing e-procurement. Similarly, it provides evidence of the benefits of e-procurement on procurement process performance and business performance.Originality/valueThis study fills a gap in the literature regarding e-procurement in SMEs and its impact on performance. SMEs constitute a significant part of today’s economies and e-procurement can significantly impact the performance of these organizations.
Employee engagement in generating ideas on internal social media
Authors: Gode Helle Eskesen , Johansen Winni , Thomsen Christa 
Published: December 2019

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore employees’ perceptions of enablers and barriers to engage in multi-vocal dialogues about ideas (ideation) on internal social media (ISM) within a context of corporate communication.

Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory study is based on four data sets: online observations of employee ideation on ISM from 2011 to 2018, semi-structured interviews and informal conversations with two managers (2015–2016), archival material, and semi-structured interviews with 14 employees (2017–2018) in a large, knowledge-intensive Danish organization.

Findings
The study identified various enablers and barriers to engagement related to psychological engagement conditions of meaningfulness, safety and availability. Managers’ communication role or importance of innovation, as well as tensions, e.g. obligation vs option to ideate or employee influence vs no influence, were identified as enabling or constraining employee engagement in ideation on ISM.

Research limitations/implications
Broadening interviews to include employees who decided not to participate in online ideation would increase insights and nuance this study’s results.

Practical implications
Managers need to be aware of the psychological engagement conditions and balance identified enablers, barriers and tensions by acknowledging communication reciprocity on ISM. Not only employees, but also managers, are dialogue partners in employee ideation on ISM.

Originality/value
The study is one of the first to explore enablers of and barriers to psychological engagement conditions in a context central to corporate communication, namely internal innovation communication on ISM, and to study ideation from a coworker perspective.
State-owned enterprises in China: their reform process, performance efficiency and future road
Authors: Huang Qunhui , Jing Yu 
Published: December 2019

Purpose
In the 40 years of reform and opening-up toward a more rational micro-economic structure, the proportion of output of state-owned enterprises shows a declining trend. Over the past decade, on one hand, the operational efficiency of state-owned enterprises has tended to be low as compared to other ownership enterprises; on the other hand, the asset–liability ratio of state-owned enterprises has risen against the trend, and still remains high under the recent national policy of “deleveraging.” The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach
This indicates that the inefficiency of state-owned enterprises that once hindered China’s economic development has not yet been fundamentally solved, and the task of deepening state-owned enterprises reform is still arduous.

Findings
In the process of establishing China’s modern economic system, there will be some “new state-owned enterprises” growing into world-class ones. This requires more effort in enhancing the capacity for independent innovation, improving the level of organizational control, expanding international market opportunities and fulfilling enterprise social responsibilities with high standards.

Originality/value
It is more appropriate for China to have a micro-economic structure in which public ownership predominates and diverse forms of ownership enjoy common prosperity and development.
How Indian home-grown businesses outsmart the MNCs
Authors: Singh Swati , Wagner Ralf 
Published: December 2019

Purpose
This paper aims to focus on how home-grown Indian companies explored the potential of Indian middle class and realized an opportunity to seize the market gap not catered by MNCs in India. Across three distinct business contexts, the authors describe the companies’ procedures of developing segment-specific offerings. Doing so, the authors outline novel strategies implemented by these companies to cater to specific needs of the segments.

Design/methodology/approach
Seizing Bandura’s (1986) framework that stresses on the role of cognitive, vicarious, self-reflective and self-regulatory processes, the authors develop a four-layered model of the Indian middle class consumers. Building upon this model, they took multiple case (three caselets) approach for illustrating the strategies of home-grown companies. The authors identify their potential to explore the unknown terrains of various market segments and rework with unique local solutions.

Findings
The study highlights the power of home-grown companies over MNCs in terms of better market understanding and realistic offerings best suited to their needs. Across the divergent business contexts the companies’ strategies have four features in common: customer targeting and developing; localization of business models, particularly services; relating the products to the Indian society; and ethnocentrism and pride.

Research limitations/implications
This study gives priority to a “thick” description of the proceedings without claiming causality. The authors limit this qualitative investigation to pinpointing congruence and contradictions to previous established results.

Practical implications
A key implication of this paper is the relevance of linking firm’s strategy to social-psychological development of customers in emerging economies component. This study provides critical insights for both managers and policymakers on the economic and social upswing as socially responsible and ethical practices are likely to gain public awareness.

Originality/value
The study’s originality springs from understanding the domestic company’s strategies when facing the pressure of (mainly Western) MNCs entering the emerging economies markets. While the latter takes advantage of economies of scale, country of origin effects and the powerful brands, the home-grown businesses are forced to develop divergent advantages and capabilities. Notably, earlier literature focused on changed demand pattern brought by MNCs in emerging economies and not on later part whereby, home-grown companies carve a space for themselves with specially designed improved products and innovative strategies.
Plant responses to diversity‐driven selection and associated rhizosphere microbial communities
Authors: Hahl Terhi , van Moorsel Sofia J. , Schmid Marc W. , Zuppinger‐Dingley Debra , Schmid Bernhard , Wagg Cameron 
Published: December 2019

Abstract

Plant diversity loss can alter plant–plant and plant–rhizosphere microbiome interactions. These altered interactions, in turn, may exert diversity‐driven selection pressure to which plants respond with phenotypic changes. Diverse plant communities may favour the survival and fitness of individuals with traits that avoid competition. Conversely, monocultures may accumulate species‐specific pests favouring greater investment in defence traits. Yet, it is unknown how altered plant rhizosphere interactions influence the plant diversity‐driven selection for altered plant phenotypes.

We tested for plant diversity‐driven selection on plant above‐ground traits and how these traits are modified by their rhizosphere microbial communities after 11 years in experimental plant monocultures and mixtures. Plants propagated from monocultures or mixtures were grown in combination with their ‘home’ versus ‘away’ arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) or non‐AMF microbes in two separate experiments using five and eight plant species, respectively. We hypothesized that plants in monocultures may be selected for better defence and better performance in association with rhizosphere microbial communities compared with plants in mixtures.

Monoculture and mixture plants significantly differed in their above‐ground phenotypes. As predicted, plant traits related to defence (greater leaf mass per area and leaf dry matter content, reduced leaf damage) were more pronounced in monoculture plants in both experiments. Effects of the rhizosphere microbial communities, which generally enhanced plant growth, tended to be species‐specific. Significant three‐way interactions between diversity‐driven selection, AMF treatment and plant species showed that home versus away effects could be positive or negative, depending on plant species.

We conclude that long‐term differences in plant diversity lead to selection for altered plant phenotypes. Such differences may be further modified in association with the AMF microbial communities derived from the different plant diversity treatments, but often outcomes are species‐specific. This suggests that plant species differ in their capacity to respond to diversity loss and associated changes in rhizosphere microbial communities, making it complicated to predict community‐level responses to such loss.

A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
Sámi knowledge and ecosystem‐based adaptation strategies for managing pastures under threat from multiple land uses
Authors: Hausner Vera H. , Engen Sigrid , Brattland Camilla , Fauchald Per 
Published: December 2019

Abstract

Ecosystem‐based adaptation (EbA) relies upon the capacity of ecosystems to buffer communities against the adverse impacts of climate change. Maintaining ecosystems that deliver critical services to communities can also provide co‐benefits beyond adaptation, such as climate mitigation and protection of biological diversity and livelihoods. EbA has, to a limited extent, drawn upon indigenous and local knowledge for defining critical services and for implementing EbA in decision‐making. This is a paradox given that the primary focus of EbA is to enable communities to adapt to climate change.

The purpose of this study was to elucidate EbA strategies that take into account the knowledge of Sámi reindeer herders about pastures in tundra regions. We first examined what constitutes critical services through a synthesis of data and literature. We thereafter used content analysis of 91 land use cases from 2010 to 2018 to investigate to what extent the herders’ knowledge and maps over seasonal pastures and migratory routes are used in local decision‐making. Finally, we propose EbA strategies of relevance to Sámi communities and pastoral communities elsewhere.

Our analysis revealed that reindeer herders and organizations representing their interests perceived threats from green energy development, tourism, recreation, public road construction and powerlines. These threats included the loss of key habitats and the loss of connectivity for migration between seasonal pastures. Pastoralists’ knowledge is incorporated through participatory tools to protect the ecosystems and services crucial for pastoralists, but multiple competing land uses result in incremental loss of pastures regardless.

Synthesis and applications. Protecting pasture ecosystems and the services they deliver, including the connectivity between pastures, are necessary Ecosystem‐based adaptation (EbA) strategies to buffer the adverse effects of climate change. Drawing on pastoralists’ knowledge to elicit EbA strategies can inform decision‐making, but it is equally important to implement this knowledge for prioritizing adaptation needs in the assessment of competing land use.
Intra‐ and interspecific density‐dependent growth and maturation of Pacific salmon in the Bering Sea
Authors: Morita Kentaro , Fukuwaka Masa‐aki 
Published: December 2019

AbstractMany studies have reported density‐dependent growth in single species, but density‐dependent growth can also occur between species when overlap in resource use occurs. We interrogate long‐term (1972–2010) monitoring data from the Bering Sea for evidence of intra‐ and interspecific density‐dependent growth among three species of Pacific salmon: sockeye, chum and pink. Partial correlation analysis, using intraspecific density as a control variable, identified interspecific density‐dependent growth among these three salmon species. As growth condition affects maturation, the maturity rates also depend on intra‐ and interspecific densities. Pacific salmon in the Bering Sea are of mixed origin, from North American and Asian rivers. As salmon return to their natal rivers, density‐dependent effects on their ocean growth and maturity during migration might have cascading effects on salmon returning to each continent, as salmon‐derived nutrients play important roles in riparian and terrestrial ecosystems.