bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Factors of high performance in Portugal
Authors: Santos Paulo , de Waal André 
Published: December 2019

Purpose
Ever since Portugal joined the European Union, Portuguese organisations have been struggling with both the challenges of new competitors flooding in from other European countries and taking advantage of the opportunities the new enlarged integrated market offered them. This is because Portuguese companies have in general low average rates of productivity growth while they lack techniques to improve not only these rates but also overall organisational performance. The purpose of this paper is to discuss whether the high-performance organisation (HPO) framework, a holistic improvement technique developed on the basis of worldwide data, is valid for the Portuguese context and therefore can support Portuguese organisations in their efforts to achieve better performance.

Design/methodology/approach
Managers in Portuguese organisations, which were found in the Spain balance sheet analysis system database, were approached to fill in the HPO questionnaire on their company. In total, data was received from 163 organisations. This data was subsequently statistically analysed using a confirmatory factor analysis.

Findings
The study shows that the 35 items of the HPO framework are valid for the participating Portuguese organisations and as such form a reliable HPO framework for these organisations. Thus, the HPO framework can be reliably applied at Portuguese organisations to evaluate their current level of organisational performance and to propose recommendations to improve performance.

Originality/value
This research study fills the gap of the currently rather limited literature on the application of holistic and effective improvement techniques in Portugal, and as such future researchers can use the framework to conduct a more in-depth study of performance gains in the Portuguese context. Portuguese managers now have at their disposal a holistic improvement technique validated for their context, so they can use the HPO framework with confidence to start improving their own organisations.
Resilience and spirituality: a mixed methods exploration of executive stress
Authors: Shelton Charlotte D. , Hein Sascha , Phipps Kelly A. 
Published: December 2019

Purpose
The purpose of this mixed methods research study was to explore the relationships between spirituality, leader resiliency and life satisfaction/well-being.

Design/methodology/approach
Using an explanatory sequential design, the authors tested three research hypotheses to explore the relationships between the participants’ spiritual practices and level of resiliency, life satisfaction and sense of well-being. Data were collected from 101 executive MBA alumni of a US-based university. Following the quantitative analysis of the survey results, interviews were conducted with 25 executives who scored high in the frequency of spiritual practice to further explore how they applied their spirituality in stressful work situations.

Findings
The results found positive relationships between spirituality, resilience and overall life satisfaction. Participants who engaged in meditative practices had a significantly higher overall resilience score than non-meditators.

Research limitations/implications
Key limitations are sample size and the risk of common method variance. Though numerous procedural steps were taken to control for these issues, future research with a larger and more diverse sample is needed.

Practical implications
Organizational stress is pervasive and executive burnout is a risk factor for leaders and their organizations. This research offers practical suggestions for ways that human resource managers and organization development practitioners can provide prevention resources to their executives.

Originality/value
This research contributes to the literature by providing support for mindfulness/meditation training for executives. It also demonstrates the value of mixed methods research for a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of the participants.
Competition in the sparkling wine market in the Czech Republic
Authors: Kostovčík Tibor , Šrédl Karel , Hommerová Dita 
Published: December 2019

Purpose
Vine growing for the production of wine constitutes one of the major areas of agriculture of the Czech Republic, and in recent years, it has been qualitatively improved. The purpose of this paper is to find out whether oligopolistic market structures have come into being on the sparkling wine market in the Czech Republic, and whether some wine firms have a dominant position on the sparkling wine market.

Design/methodology/approach
The purpose of this study is to find, compare and carry out a statistical analysis of data on the production and sale of sparkling wines in the Czech Republic, in particular the indicators of the sales and profits of the dominant producer, Bohemia Sekt. In retail chains in the Czech Republic, the price of domestic and foreign sparkling wines was then compared with a comparative analysis.

Findings
The dominant seller of sparkling wine on the Czech market is Bohemia Sekt, which is also the largest domestic non-sparkling and sparkling wine producer. Bohemia Sekt sold 11 m bottles of sparkling wine on the Czech market in 2015 and maintained a 67 per cent share of the domestic market. Traditionally, Christmas time and the end of the year is the main season for selling sparkling wines in the Czech Republic, as more than one-third of the annual production of all wineries is sold at this time.

Originality/value
The paper presents a finding about the consistency of the prices of sparkling wines offered in retail chains in the Czech Republic. This confirms the validity of using the model of oligopolistic competition with a dominant company on the sparkling wine market in the Czech Republic. The dominance of Bohemia Sekt in the given market is mainly due to the loyalty of Czech consumers to this brand.
Social media and student performance: the moderating role of ICT knowledge
Authors: Dzogbenuku Robert Kwame , Amoako George Kofi , Kumi Desmond K. 
Published: December 2019

PurposeThis study aims to determine the impact of social media usage on university student’s academic performance in Ghana.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative research method was used for the study. With the aid of a simple random sampling technique, quantitative data were obtained from 373 out of 400 respondents representing 93 per cent of volunteered participants. Data collected was analysed using structural equation modelling to establish the relationship among social media information, social media entertainment, social media innovation, social media knowledge generation and student performance.FindingsThe findings of this study indicate that social media information, social media innovation and social media entertainment all had a significant positive influence on social media knowledge generation, which has wide learning and knowledge management implications. Also, the study indicated that information computer technology knowledge moderates the relationship between social media and student performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample taken was mainly cross-sectional in nature rendering the inference of causal relationships between the variables impossible. Future researchers should adopt a longitudinal research design to examine causality. Finally, the study was limited to only university students in Accra, Ghana. Future research can extend to a bigger student population and to other West African and African countries.Practical implicationsThis paper will serve as a profitable source of information for managers and researchers who may embark on future research on social media and academic performance. The findings that social media information, innovation and entertainment can likewise enhance social media knowledge generation can help managers and university teachers to use the vehicle of innovation and entertainment to communicate knowledge.Social implicationsThe findings of this study will help policymakers in education and other industries that engage the youth to realise the important factors that can make them get the best in the social media space.Originality/valueSocial media usage in academic performance is increasingly prevalent. However, little is known about how social media knowledge generation mediates between social media usage and academic performance and, furthermore, whether the information computer technology knowledge level of students moderates the relationship between social media knowledge generation and academic performance of university students in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Ghana. Theoretically, the findings of this study provide clear research evidence to guide various investigations that can be done on the relationships of the variables under social media usage, knowledge generation and university student performance, which advances the diffusion of new knowledge.
Study of Love-type wave vibrations in double sandy layers on half-space of viscoelastic
Authors: Kumhar Raju , Kundu Santimoy , Maity Manisha , Gupta Shishir 
Published: December 2019

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the dependency of dispersion and damping behavior of Love-type waves on wave number in a heterogeneous dry sandy double layer of finite thickness superimposed on heterogeneous viscoelastic substrate under the influence of hydrostatic initial stress.

Design/methodology/approach
The mechanical properties of the material of both the dry sandy layers vary with respect to a certain depth as quadratic and hyperbolic function, while it varies as an exponential function for the viscoelastic semi-infinite medium. The method of the separation of variables is employed to obtain the complex frequency equation.

Findings
The complex frequency equation is separated into real and imaginary components corresponding to dispersion and damping equation. After that, the obtained result coincides with the pre-established classical equation of Love wave, as shown in Section 5. The response of all mechanical parameters such as heterogeneities, sandiness, hydrostatic stress, thickness ratio, attenuation and viscoelasticity on both the phase and damped velocity against real wave number has been discussed with the help of numerical example and graphical demonstrations.

Originality/value
In this work, a comparative study clarifies that the Love wave propagates with higher speed in an isotropic elastic structure as compared to the proposed model. This study may find its applications in the investigation of mechanical behavior and deformation of the sedimentary rock.
Modelling industry interdependency dynamics in a network context
Authors: Qian Ya , Härdle Wolfgang , Chen Cathy Yi-Hsuan 
Published: December 2019

PurposeInterdependency among industries is vital for understanding economic structures and managing industrial portfolios. However, it is hard to precisely model the interconnecting structure among industries. One of the reasons is that the interdependencies show a different pattern in tail events. This paper aims to investigate industry interdependency with the tail events.Design/methodology/approachGeneral predictive model of Rapachet al.(2016) is extended to an interdependency model via least absolute shrinkage and selection operator quantile regression and network analysis. A dynamic network approach was applied on the Fama–French industry portfolios to study the time-varying interdependencies.FindingsA denser network with heterogeneous central industries is found in tail cases. Significant interdependency varieties across time are shown under dynamic network analysis. Market volatility is identified as an influential factor of industry connectedness as well as clustering tendency under both normal and tail cases. Moreover, combining dynamic network with prediction direction information into out-of-sample industry return forecasting, a lower tail case is obtained, which gives the most accurate prediction of one-month forward returns. Finally, the Sharpe ratio criterion prefers high-centrality portfolios when tail risks are considered.Originality/valueThis study examines the industry portfolio interactions under the framework of network analysis and also takes into consideration tail risks. The combination of economic interpretation and statistical methodology helps in having a clear investigation of industry interdependency. Moreover, a new trading strategy based on network centrality seems profitable in our data sample.
Testing the importance of harvest refuges for phenotypic rescue of trophy‐hunted populations
Authors: Poisson Yoanna , Festa‐Bianchet Marco , Pelletier Fanie 
Published: December 2019

Abstract

Sustainable exploitation must minimize its impact on the ecology and evolution of exploited wildlife. Intense phenotype‐based selective harvests can induce evolutionary change. Refuges could mitigate those evolutionary effects if individuals not subject to selective hunting in harvest refuges migrated and reproduced in hunted areas. The role of harvest refuges on phenotypic rescue of trophy‐hunted species, however, has rarely been tested.

We investigated spatial and temporal variation in the effect of refuges on horn size and age at harvest in bighorn sheep Ovis canadensis. We analysed data on 5,826 males harvested over 39 years in Alberta, Canada.

Horn length, a trait targeted by hunters, and age at harvest increased with the amount of protected areas 5–40 km around each kill. Horn base circumference, however, was independent of proximity to refuges.

The number of males harvested increased during the last 10 days of the hunting season in late October, corresponding to the timing of bighorn male breeding migrations. Males shot during those 10 days were on average 17% closer to a refuge than males shot earlier in the season. Apparently, some large males exit refuges late in the hunting season, are shot, and cannot contribute to rescue. Uncertainty remains about the proportion of males exiting refuges after the hunting season and how many survive to reproduce.

Synthesis and applications. Harvest refuges are unlikely to rescue hunted populations of bighorn sheep in Alberta, because some males exiting refuges are at risk of harvest before they mate. For phenotypic rescue to be effective, unselected males must reproduce before they are shot. Closing the hunting season 10 days earlier would increase survival of unselected rams exiting refuges.
Is the AIIB a China‐controlled Bank? China’s Evolving Multilateralism in Three Dimensions (3D)
Authors: Zhu Jiejin 
Published: December 2019

AbstractIs the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank a China‐controlled bank? This basic question highlights the issue of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank’s (AIIB) international credibility, especially as a multilateral institution. AIIB president Jin Liqun recognized the ‘multilateral challenge’ for China from the outset of the planning to create the new Bank, and he understood that the new Bank would only be a real success for China if the AIIB is truly a multilateral development bank – inside Beijing circles, he added, ‘and only if the new Bank does better than the long‐established counterpart MDBs’. These sentiments were alluded to in Jin’s remarks in the Financial Times: ‘China benefited a lot from the existing international system. China needs to do something which can help it be recognized as a responsible member and maybe a responsible leader in the future… if it does well, that will enhance China’s credibility, but if this institution does not follow the international best practice, who will believe in China in the future’. Skeptics, however, question whether it is ever possible that China will allow the AIIB to develop into an actual multilateral bank.
MOTMOT: Models of trait macroevolution on trees (an update)
Authors: Puttick Mark N. , Ingram Travis , Clarke Magnus , Thomas Gavin H. 
Published: December 2019

Abstract

The disparity in species’ traits arises through variation in the tempo and mode of evolution over time and between lineages. Understanding these patterns is a core goal in evolutionary biology.

Here we present the comprehensively updated r package MOTMOT: Models Of Trait Macroevolution On Trees that contains methods to fit and test models of continuous trait evolution on phylogenies of extant and extinct species.

MOTMOT provides functions to investigate a range of evolutionary hypotheses, including flexible approaches to investigate heterogeneous rates and modes of evolution, models of trait change under interspecific competition and patterns of trait change across significant evolutionary transitions such as mass extinctions. We introduce and test novel algorithms of heterogeneous tempo and mode of evolution that allow for phylogeny‐wide shifts in evolution at specific times on a tree. We use these new MOTMOT functions to highlight an exceptionally high rate of mammalian body mass evolution for 10 million years following the Cretaceous–Palaeogene mass extinction.

These methods provide biologists and palaeontologists with the tools to analyse continuous trait data on phylogenies, including large trees of up to thousands of species.
A small molecule transcription factor EB activator ameliorates beta‐amyloid precursor protein and Tau pathology in Alzheimer's disease models
Authors: Song Ju‐Xian , Malampati Sandeep , Zeng Yu , Durairajan Siva Sundara Kumar , Yang Chuan‐Bin , Tong Benjamin Chun‐Kit , Iyaswamy Ashok , Shang Wen‐Bin , Sreenivasmurthy Sravan Gopalkrishnashetty , Zhu Zhou , Cheung King‐Ho , Lu Jia‐Hong , Tang Chunzhi , Xu Nenggui , Li Min 
Published: December 2019

AbstractAccumulating studies have suggested that targeting transcription factor EB (TFEB), an essential regulator of autophagy‐lysosomal pathway (ALP), is promising for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, potent and specific small molecule TFEB activators are not available at present. Previously, we identified a novel TFEB activator named curcumin analog C1 which directly binds to and activates TFEB. In this study, we systematically investigated the efficacy of curcumin analog C1 in three AD animal models that represent beta‐amyloid precursor protein (APP) pathology (5xFAD mice), tauopathy (P301S mice) and the APP/Tau combined pathology (3xTg‐AD mice). We found that C1 efficiently activated TFEB, enhanced autophagy and lysosomal activity, and reduced APP, APP C‐terminal fragments (CTF‐β/α), β‐amyloid peptides and Tau aggregates in these models accompanied by improved synaptic and cognitive function. Knockdown of TFEB and inhibition of lysosomal activity significantly inhibited the effects of C1 on APP and Tau degradation in vitro. In summary, curcumin analog C1 is a potent TFEB activator with promise for the prevention or treatment of AD.
Low‐dose lipopolysaccharide exposure can increase in vivo bilirubin production rates in newborn mice
Authors: Iwatani Sota , Jacobsen Danielle R. , Wong Ronald J. , Stevenson David K. 
Published: December 2019

AbstractAimNeonatal haemolysis increases bilirubin production rates, which can then lead to severe hyperbilirubinaemia and bilirubin neurotoxicity. During haemolysis, haem is degraded by haem oxygenase (HO), which can be induced under stress conditions. It is known that neonatal sepsis is a risk factor for haemolysis and severe hyperbilirubinaemia. Here, we evaluated whether an exposure to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to induce sepsis can upregulate HO‐1, further increasing in vivo bilirubin production rates in mouse pups under haem loads.MethodsThree‐day‐old pups were given LPS (1250 μg/kg) or saline (controls). Liver HO enzyme activity, HO‐1 mRNA and HO‐1 protein were measured post‐LPS exposure. We then assessed the effects of LPS treatment on in vivo bilirubin production rates after haem loading.ResultsLiver HO activity significantly increased (142%) over controls 24 hours after treatment with LPS (1250 μg/kg) without mortality. Liver HO‐1 mRNA was significantly upregulated 2.47‐fold at 24 hours post‐LPS administration, while liver HO‐1 protein increased 1.29‐fold 24 hours post‐LPS treatment. After haem loading, pups exposed to LPS had significantly higher bilirubin production rates (1.30‐fold) compared with age‐matched, saline‐treated controls.ConclusionLow‐dose LPS treatment can upregulate liver HO‐1 expression and may underlie the severe hyperbilirubinaemia seen in septic infants, particularly when undergoing haemolysis.
Volatile organic compounds in breath can serve as a non‐invasive diagnostic biomarker for the detection of advanced adenomas and colorectal cancer
Authors: van Keulen Kelly E. , Jansen Maud E. , Schrauwen Ruud W. M. , Kolkman Jeroen J. , Siersema Peter D. 
Published: December 2019

SummaryBackgroundColorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer diagnosis in the Western world.AimTo evaluate exhaled volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as a non‐invasive biomarker for the detection of CRC and precursor lesions using an electronic nose.MethodsIn this multicentre study adult colonoscopy patients, without inflammatory bowel disease or (previous) malignancy, were invited for breath analysis. Two‐thirds of the breath tests were randomly assigned to develop training models which were used to predict the diagnosis of the remaining patients (external validation). In the end, all data were used to develop final‐disease models to further improve the discriminatory power of the algorithms.ResultsFive hundred and eleven breath samples were collected. Sixty‐four patients were excluded due to an inadequate breath test (n = 51), incomplete colonoscopy (n = 8) or colitis (n = 5). Classification was based on the most advanced lesion found; CRC (n = 70), advanced adenomas (AAs) (n = 117), non‐advanced adenoma (n = 117), hyperplastic polyp (n = 15), normal colonoscopy (n = 125). Training models for CRC and AAs had an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.76 and 0.71 and blind validation resulted in an AUC of 0.74 and 0.61 respectively. Final models for CRC and AAs yielded an AUC of 0.84 (sensitivity 95% and specificity 64%) and 0.73 (sensitivity and specificity 79% and 59%) respectively.ConclusionsThis study suggests that exhaled VOCs could potentially serve as a non‐invasive biomarker for the detection of CRC and AAs. Future studies including more patients could further improve the discriminatory potential of VOC analysis for the detection of (pre‐)malignant colorectal lesions. (https://clinicaltrials.gov Identifier NCT03488537)