bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The influence of lean management and environmental practices on relative competitive quality advantage and performance
Authors: Agyabeng-Mensah Yaw , Ahenkorah Esther , Afum Ebenezer , Owusu Dallas 
Published: May 2020

PurposeFirms are adopting strategies to advance product quality and environmental sustainability to achieve improved profitability and shareholders’ wealth. The study investigates strategies that create a superior quality performance to competitors and improve both environmental and business performances. This paper explores the direct and indirect influence of lean management and environmental practices on relative competitive quality advantage, environmental performance and business performance.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a quantitative method where data is gathered from 259 manufacturing firms in Ghana. The data is gathered through customized questionnaires. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (SmartPLS 3.2.8) is used to analyze the data. Firm size, industry type and importance of environmental issues are used as control variables in this study.FindingsThe findings of the study indicate that both lean management and environmental practices create relative competitive quality advantage and improve environmental performance and business performance. Environmental performance and relative competitive quality advantage mediate the influence of lean management and environmental practices on business performance. The results further indicate that lean management creates a higher relative competitive quality advantage than environmental practices, while environmental practices have more potency to enhance environmental performance than lean management.Originality/valueThe study develops and proposes a comprehensive theoretical framework that examines the potency of environmental practices and lean management in creating a relative competitive quality advantage and improving environmental performance and business performance from a Ghanaian perspective, which is an emerging economy in Africa. Lean management and environmental practices may jointly help firms create relative competitive advantage and improve environmental performance to enhance business performance.
Disability employment and financial performance: the effect of technological innovation of listed firms in India
Authors: Oware Kofi Mintah , Mallikarjunappa T. 
Published: May 2020

Purpose
Technological innovation (TI) has become a competitive advantage to firm sustainability and survival; however, stakeholders struggle to embrace this revolution. There is a fear that technology innovation leads to massive job loss. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate TI, employee disability (EDI) and financial performance.

Design/methodology/approach
Using the Indian stock market as a testing ground, the authors used panel regression to analyse 80 sustainability-reporting firms (640 firm-year observations) between 2010 and 2017.

Findings
The findings show that technology innovation has a positive association with EDI. It further indicates EDI with TI improves the financial performance (return on assets and return on equity) of firms. Also, the study shows that EDI in the service and manufacturing sector are the critical contributors when combined with TI towards an increase in financial performance.

Practical implications
The implication for the study allows firms to increase employment of people with disabilities in the workplace because TI has a positive effect on EDI. The results from the study confirm the service sector as the highest contributor to financial performance in the emergence of TI.

Originality/value
The novelty of this research provides empirical evidence that the service sector contributes more to financial performance when EDI combines with TI.
Research challenges for the use of big data in policy-making
Authors: Mureddu Francesco , Schmeling Juliane , Kanellou Eleni 
Published: May 2020

Purpose
This paper aims to present pertinent research challenges in the field of (big) data-informed policy-making based on the research, undertaken within the course of the European Union-funded project Big Policy Canvas. Technological advancements, especially in the past decade, have revolutionised the way that both every day and complex activities are conducted. It is, thus, expected that a particularly important actor such as the public sector, should constitute a successful disruption paradigm through the adoption of novel approaches and state-of-the-art information and communication technologies.

Design
The research challenges stem from a need, trend and asset assessment based on qualitative and quantitative research, as well as from the identification of gaps and external framework factors that hinder the rapid and effective uptake of data-driven policy-making approaches.

Findings
The current paper presents a set of research challenges categorised in six main clusters, namely, public governance framework, privacy, transparency, trust, data acquisition, cleaning and representativeness, data clustering, integration and fusion, modelling and analysis with big data and data visualisation.

Originality/value
The paper provides a holistic overview of the interdisciplinary research challenges in the field of data-informed policy-making at a glance and shall serve as a foundation for the discussion of future research directions in a broader scientific community. It, furthermore, underlines the necessity to overcome isolated scientific views and treatments because of a high complex multi-layered environment.
Creating learning organization 2.0: a contextualized and multi-stakeholder approach
Authors: Mak Carry , Hong Jacky 
Published: May 2020

Purpose
This paper aims to offer a contextualized and multi-stakeholder perspective for creating a learning organization (LO) 2.0.

Design/methodology/approach
Based on a systematic review of the critiques of LO in the past three decades, this paper suggests some possible directions for the development of next-generation of LO (e.g. LO 2.0).

Findings
It is suggested that LO 2.0 should adopt a contextualized perspective by considering the social, organizational, cultural and industrial contexts to enhance the success of LO implementation and help fine-tune the universal LO model. Accordingly, LO 2.0 should adopt a multi-stakeholder perspective by incorporating multiple stakeholders during the process of design and implementation under the rationales of counteracting managerial dominance of low-power marginalized employees and mitigating the impacts of increased competition and technology advancement.

Practical implications
This paper provides some practical advice to business practitioners regarding how the practices of LO 2.0 can be adopted.

Originality/value
The study adds to the existing LO literature by further supporting and developing a contextualized and multi-stakeholder perspective to create the next generation of LO.
Phenomic and genomic approaches to studying the inhibition of multiresistant Salmonella enterica by microcin J25
Authors: Ben Said Laila , Emond‐Rheault Jean‐Guillaume , Soltani Samira , Telhig Sofiane , Zirah Séverine , Rebuffat Sylvie , Diarra Moussa Sory , Goodridge Lawrence , Levesque Roger C. , Fliss Ismail 
Published: May 2020

SummaryIn livestock production, antibiotics are used to promote animal growth, control infections and thereby increase profitability. This practice has led to the emergence of multiresistant bacteria such as Salmonella, of which some serovars are disseminated in the environment. The objective of this study is to evaluate microcin J25 as an inhibitor of Salmonella enterica serovars of various origins including human, livestock and food. Among the 116 isolates tested, 37 (31.8%) were found resistant to at least one antibiotic, and 28 were multiresistant with 19 expressing the penta‐resistant phenotype ACSSuT. Microcin J25 inhibited all isolates, with minimal inhibitory concentration values ranging from 0.06 μg/ml (28.4 nM) to 400 μg/ml (189 μM). Interestingly, no cross‐resistance was found between microcin J25 and antibiotics. Multiple sequence alignments of genes encoding for the different proteins involved in the recognition and transport of microcin J25 showed that only ferric‐hydroxamate uptake is an essential determinant for susceptibility of S. enterica to microcin J25. Examination of Salmonella strains exposed to microcin J25 by transmission electronic microscopy showed for the first‐time involvement of a pore formation mechanism. Microcin J25 was a strong inhibitor of several multiresistant isolates of Salmonella and may have a great potential as an alternative to antibiotics.
Impacts of Australia’s free trade agreements on trade in agricultural products: an aggregative and disaggregative analysis
Authors: Timsina Krishna P. , Culas Richard J. 
Published: May 2020

The importance of free trade agreements (FTAs) has been increasing as such agreements help reduce barriers to trade. This paper estimates the agricultural trade creation and export diversion effects of Australia’s free trade agreements (FTAs) at the aggregate and disaggregate levels, using the Poisson pseudo‐maximum‐likelihood (PPML) estimator. It includes 24 of Australia’s major trading partner countries comprising FTA and non‐FTA members and covers 22 years from 1996 to 2017. The heteroscedasticity robust regression error specification test (RESET) confirms the relevance of PPML over the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) estimator. Results showed that China–Australia, Korea–Australia, Australia–USA and Japan–Australia have larger trade creation effects in the agricultural sector. At the commodity level, variation in trade creation effects is estimated from the different trade agreements. Among the selected commodities, the larger effects were generated in trade in sugar and wine by the implementation of the majority of the trade agreements. Overall, the trade creation was greater than the export diversion of the FTAs. The findings of the study have implications for Australia’s future trade agreements.
Non‐invasive prediction of fetal growth restriction by whole‐genome promoter profiling of maternal plasma DNA: a nested case–control study
Authors: Xu C , Guo Z , Zhang J , Lu Q , Tian Q , Liu S , Li K , Wang K , Tao Z , Li C , Lv Z , Zhang Z , Yang X , Yang F 
Published: May 2020

ObjectiveTo predict fetal growth restriction (FGR) by whole‐genome promoter profiling of maternal plasma.DesignNested case–control study.SettingHospital‐based.Population or Sample810 pregnancies: 162 FGR cases and 648 controls.MethodsWe identified gene promoters with a nucleosome footprint that differed between FGR cases and controls based on maternal plasma cell‐free DNA (cfDNA) nucleosome profiling. Optimal classifiers were developed using support vector machine (SVM) and logistic regression (LR) models.Main outcome measuresGenes with differential coverages in promoter regions through the low‐coverage whole‐genome sequencing data analysis among FGR cases and controls. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis (area under the curve [AUC], accuracy, sensitivity and specificity) was used to evaluate the performance of classifiers.ResultsThrough the low‐coverage whole‐genome sequencing data analysis of FGR cases and controls, genes with significantly differential DNA coverage at promoter regions (−1000 to +1000 bp of transcription start sites) were identified. The non‐invasive ‘FGR classifier 1’ (CFGR1) had the highest classification performance (AUC, 0.803; 95% CI 0.767–0.839; accuracy, 83.2%) was developed based on 14 genes with differential promoter coverage using a support vector machine.ConclusionsA promising FGR prediction method was successfully developed for assessing the risk of FGR at an early gestational age based on maternal plasma cfDNA nucleosome profiling.Tweetable abstractA promising FGR prediction method was successfully developed, based on maternal plasma cfDNA nucleosome profiling.
Impact of a novel Rickettsia symbiont on the life history and virus transmission capacity of its host whitefly (Bemisia tabaci)
Authors: Lei Teng , Zhao Jing , Wang Hua‐Ling , Liu Yin‐Quan , Liu Shu‐Sheng 
Published: May 2020

AbstractRickettsia consists of some of the most prevalent symbionts of insects and often plays a significant role in the biology of its hosts. Recently, a maternally inherited Torix group Rickettsia, provisionally named as RiTBt, was recorded in a species of notorious pest whitefly, tentatively named as Asia II 1, from the Bemisia tabaci complex. The role of this Rickettsia in the biology of its host is unknown. Here we investigated the impact of RiTBt on the performance and virus transmission capacity of Asia II 1. RiTBt did not significantly affect the life history parameters of the whitefly when the host insect was reared on tobacco, tomato, and cotton, three host plants with relatively low, medium and high suitability to the whitefly. Intriguingly, RiTBt slightly enhanced whitefly transmission of cotton leaf curl Multan virus (CLCuMuV), a virus that is transmitted by the whitefly in the field and has caused extensive damage to cotton production. Specifically, compared with whiteflies without RiTBt, following a 48 h virus acquisition whiteflies with RiTBt had higher titer of virus and showed higher efficiency of virus transmission. A rickettsial secretory protein BtR242 was identified as a putative virus‐binding protein, and was observed to interact with the coat protein of CLCuMuV in vitro. Viral infection of the whitefly downregulated gene transcript levels of the BtR242 gene. These observations indicate that RiTBt has limited impact on the biology of the Asia II 1 whitefly, and whether this symbiont has functions in the biology of other host whiteflies warrants future investigation.
Co‐occurrence of antibiotic, biocide, and heavy metal resistance genes in bacteria from metal and radionuclide contaminated soils at the Savannah River Site
Authors: Thomas Jesse C. , Oladeinde Adelumola , Kieran Troy J. , Finger John W. , Bayona‐Vásquez Natalia J. , Cartee John C. , Beasley James C. , Seaman John C. , McArthur J Vuan , Rhodes Olin E. , Glenn Travis C. 
Published: May 2020

SummaryContaminants such as heavy metals may contribute to the dissemination of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by enriching resistance gene determinants via co‐selection mechanisms. In the present study, a survey was performed on soils collected from four areas at the Savannah River Site (SRS), South Carolina, USA, with varying contaminant profiles: relatively pristine (Upper Three Runs), heavy metals (Ash Basins), radionuclides (Pond B) and heavy metal and radionuclides (Tim’s Branch). Using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, we explored the structure and diversity of soil bacterial communities. Sites with legacies of metal and/or radionuclide contamination displayed significantly lower bacterial diversity compared to the reference site. Metagenomic analysis indicated that multidrug and vancomycin antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and metal resistance genes (MRGs) including those associated with copper, arsenic, iron, nickel and zinc were prominent in all soils including the reference site. However, significant differences were found in the relative abundance and diversity of certain ARGs and MRGs in soils with metal/radionuclide contaminated soils compared to the reference site. Co‐occurrence patterns revealed significant ARG/MRG subtypes in predominant soil taxa includingAcidobacteriaceae,Bradyrhizobium,Mycobacterium,Streptomyces,Verrumicrobium,Actinomaduraand Solirubacterales. Overall, the study emphasizes the potential risk of human activities on the dissemination of AMR in the environment.
Chromosomal‐level genome assembly of the scimitar‐horned oryx: Insights into diversity and demography of a species extinct in the wild
Authors: Humble Emily , Dobrynin Pavel , Senn Helen , Chuven Justin , Scott Alan F. , Mohr David W. , Dudchenko Olga , Omer Arina D. , Colaric Zane , Lieberman Aiden Erez , Al Dhaheri Shaikha Salem , Wildt David , Oliaji Shireen , Tamazian Gaik , Pukazhenthi Budhan , Ogden Rob , Koepfli Klaus‐Peter 
Published: May 2020

AbstractCaptive populations provide a valuable insurance against extinctions in the wild. However, they are also vulnerable to the negative impacts of inbreeding, selection and drift. Genetic information is therefore considered a critical aspect of conservation management. Recent developments in sequencing technologies have the potential to improve the outcomes of management programmes; however, the transfer of these approaches to applied conservation has been slow. The scimitar‐horned oryx (Oryx dammah) is a North African antelope that has been extinct in the wild since the early 1980s and is the focus of a large‐scale and long‐term reintroduction project. To enable the selection of suitable founder individuals, facilitate post‐release monitoring and improve captive breeding management, comprehensive genomic resources are required. Here, we used 10X Chromium sequencing together with Hi‐C contact mapping to develop a chromosomal‐level genome assembly for the species. The resulting assembly contained 29 chromosomes with a scaffold N50 of 100.4 Mb, and displayed strong chromosomal synteny with the cattle genome. Using resequencing data from six additional individuals, we demonstrated relatively high genetic diversity in the scimitar‐horned oryx compared to other mammals, despite it having experienced a strong founding event in captivity. Additionally, the level of diversity across populations varied according to management strategy. Finally, we uncovered a dynamic demographic history that coincided with periods of climate variation during the Pleistocene. Overall, our study provides a clear example of how genomic data can uncover valuable insights into captive populations and contributes important resources to guide future management decisions of an endangered species.
Genome‐wide association studies for the number of teats and teat asymmetry patterns in Large White pigs
Authors: Moscatelli G. , Dall’Olio S. , Bovo S. , Schiavo G. , Kazemi H. , Ribani A. , Zambonelli P. , Tinarelli S. , Gallo M. , Bertolini F. , Fontanesi L. 
Published: May 2020

SummaryThe number of teats is a morphological trait that influences the mothering ability of the sows and thus their reproduction performances. In this study, we carried out GWASs for the total number of teats and other 12 related parameters in 821 Italian Large White heavy pigs. All pigs were genotyped with the Illumina PorcineSNP60 BeadChip array. For four investigated parameters (total number of teats, the number of teats of the left line, the number of teats of the right line and the maximum number of teats comparing the two sides), significant markers were identified on SSC7, in the region of the vertnin (VRTN) gene. Significant markers for the numbers of posterior teats and the absolute difference between anterior and posterior teat numbers were consistently identified on SSC6. The most significant SNP for these parameters was an intron variant in the TOX high mobility group box family member 3 (TOX3) gene. For the other four parameters (absolute difference between the two sides; anterior teats; the ratio between the posterior and the anterior number of teats; and the absence or the presence of extra teats) only suggestively significant markers were identified on several other chromosomes. This study further supported the role of the VRTN gene region in affecting the recorded variability of the number of teats in the Italian Large White pig population and identified a genomic region potentially affecting the biological mechanisms controlling the developmental programme of morphological features in pigs.
Practice guidelines for teledermatology in Australia
Authors: Abbott Lisa M , Miller Robert , Janda Monika , Bennett Haley , Taylor Monica , Arnold Chris , Shumack Stephen , Soyer H Peter , Caffery Liam J 
Published: May 2020

AbstractDespite the potential of teledermatology to increase access to dermatology services and improve patient care, it is not widely practised in Australia. In an effort to increase uptake of teledermatology by Australian dermatologists and support best practice, guidelines for teledermatology for the Australian context have been developed by The University of Queensland's Centre for Online Health in collaboration with The Australasian College of Dermatologists’ E‐Health Committee. The guidelines are presented in two sections: 1. Guidelines and 2. Notes to support their application in practice, when feasible and appropriate. Content was last updated March 2020 and includes modalities of teledermatology; patient selection and consent; imaging; quality and safety; privacy and security; communication; and documentation and retention of clinical images. The guidelines educate dermatologists about the benefits and limitations of telehealth while articulating how to enhance patient care and reduce risk when practicing teledermatology.
How doctors communicated with parents in a neonatal intensive care: Communication and ethical issues
Authors: Sorin Gaelle , Dany Lionel , Vialet Renaud , Thomachot Laurent , Hassid Sophie , Michel Fabrice , Tosello Barthélémy 
Published: May 2020

AbstractAimDoctors have a moral and legal obligation to keep patients and their families informed, and this is an integral part of care. We explored the communication strategies used by doctors when they spoke to parents in a French neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).MethodsThis was a single‐centre qualitative pilot study carried out from October 2015 to January 2016. We asked five doctors (three female) to audiotape their discussions with the parents of newborn infants during their NICU stay. The doctors’ mean age was 43 years, and they had a mean of 14 years of NICU experience. Each discussion was subjected to thematic content analysis.ResultsWe analysed 40 discussions carried out between doctors on 26 newborn infants. Five communication strategy themes emerged: building understanding, how the communication was constructed, the role of the doctor, and of the parents, in the overall care of the newborn infant and how the information given to the parents developed over time.ConclusionAnalysing the content of the information discussed with parents provided us with the opportunity to understand the communication and ethical issues surrounding the delivery of information in a NICU. This could be used to improve future discussions between doctors and parents.