bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The circular economy: rearranging structural couplings and the paradox of moral-based sustainability-enhancing feedback
Authors: Neisig Margit 
Published: June 2021

PurposeCircular Economy is a policy and practice-oriented concept drawing mainly on engineering and natural science. This paper aims to contribute a conceptual development based on social systems theory. Does the Circular Economy have the prospect to become a sustainability-enhancing feedback mechanism potentializing an evolutionary systemic rearrangement of structural couplings, and will it encounter limitations as a general approach for a sustainable development?Design/methodology/approachBy using the Luhmannian theory as method, core concepts are semantics, structure and rearrangement of structural couplings. In acknowledging the social system’s operational closure, social-metabolism with nature is discussed. The research is in three stages. First, structural couplings of matter and social systems. Second, structural couplings of organizational networks closing the loop–eventually using digitalization. Third, the Circular Economy encountering multicontextuality.FindingsThe paper provides: (1) A four-stage structural coupling enacting metabolism with nature allowing measurement of circularity potentially useable for feedback “irritating” relevant social systems’ reflexion. (2) Identification of obstacles encountered in the proliferation due to paradoxes of strategic decisions in organizations, difficulties of structural couplings of organizational networks and the paradox of digitalization. (3) Help by future digitalization but simultaneously new side-effects. (4) The multicontextuality as the limitation for a broad sustainability approach.Originality/valueThe paper answers a call for more social science theoretical research on the Circular Economy. It develops core conceptualizations based on social systems theory. Also, advices for future research and practical implementation are suggested.
Contributing role of regulatory compliance and Islamic operations in bank risk: evidence from Pakistan
Authors: Akhtar Shahzad , Hussain Haroon , Hussain Rana Yassir 
Published: June 2021

PurposeThis study aims to estimate the regulatory compliance impact on the risk of banks operating in Pakistan. The direct and indirect regulatory compliance of conventional banks with Islamic operations in terms of risk from 2009 to 2017 are estimated.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a two-step system generalized method of moment (GMM) (dynamic panel) to examine the relationship between regulatory compliance, Islamic operations and the bank risk and tested the direct and indirect impacts of regulatory compliance and Islamic operations on the said risk.FindingsRegulatory compliance has a significant and positive relation with bank risk, whereas the Islamic bank operations have a significant and negative relationship. Thus, regulatory compliance creates pressure on banks, but the Islamic operations of conventional banks reduce this pressure in direct and indirect ways.Practical implicationsPer the policy of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), banks shall pursue Islamic operations to reduce regulatory pressure and widen their scope. The results suggest that regulatory compliance creates pressure on bank risk irrespective of the type of the bank. Thus, the SBP should seek the appropriate measure for this occurrence.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work is the very first study that has considered the unique Islamic operations of conventional banks and estimated its impact on risk. Moreover, this work examined two types of bank risk instead of employing stability and market measure. This research is also the first to implement a two-step system GMM for the methodology.
Change through chaos: using bricolage in cross-sector social partnerships
Authors: Intindola Melissa , Ofstein Laurel 
Published: June 2021

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore bricolage as the missing link in understanding how cross-sector social partnerships form and operate in response to grand challenges. It is proposed that the weaving together of resources employed by members of cross-sector social partnerships (CSSPs) is bricolage in action and can be linked to Gray's (1985) facilitating conditions for collaboration. While existing research examines bricolage primarily at the individual level, this research studies collective bricolage, as implemented by a cross-sector social partnership in its process to address a grand challenge.Design/methodology/approachThe authors follow the evolution of a Midwestern initiative aimed at the grand challenge of generational poverty. The deductive case study approach identifies the mechanisms of bricolage being employed in the initiative's evolution and ties these to Gray's (1985) seminal paper on interorganizational collaboration.FindingsThis case study has implications for academics conceptually struggling to understand grand challenges and the role of entrepreneurial initiatives in the public and nonprofit sectors, as well as practitioners currently involved in collaborative efforts to address said challenges.Originality/valueThis study enriches the discussion and enhances the link between the CSSP literature and new notions of social entrepreneurship that embrace the collective as their unit of analysis. This is the first work of its kind to link bricolage to a nascent CSSP and demonstrate how the entrepreneurial concept of bricolage is an inherent part of CSSP formation and operation.
Toward a meaningful experience: an explanation of the drivers of the continued usage of gamified mobile app services
Authors: Zhou Fei , Mou Jian , Kim Jongki 
Published: June 2021

PurposeThis study argues that to drive users' continuance use behaviors, it is necessary to satisfy their desire for a meaningful experience when using information systems (IS). Therefore, this research explores the influencing mechanism by which gamified IS (immersive-related interaction, achievement-related interaction, and social-related interaction) impacts users' perceived benefits and continuance intention.Design/methodology/approachIn this research, 367 users of Ant Forest are investigated in two waves through random sampling and the use of a structural equation model with SmartPLS 3.0 software.FindingsThe research results reveal the following: (1) both achievement-related interaction and social-related interaction can affect the user's continuance intention, while the direct impact of immersive-related interaction on the user's continuance intention is not supported; (2) users' perceived self-benefits fully mediate the relationships between achievement-related interaction and social-related interaction and users' continuance intention; and (3) perceived social benefits fully mediate the relationships between achievement-related interaction and social-related interaction and users' continuance intention.Originality/valueThis study supports the retention effects of gamification design on users' continuance intention by evocating users' dual perceived benefits.
Predicting the effects of body size, temperature and diet on animal feeding rates
Authors: Nunes Lucas T. , Barneche Diego R. , Lastrucci Naomi S. , Fraga Alana A. , Nunes José A. C. C. , Ferreira Carlos E. L. , Floeter Sergio R. 
Published: June 2021

Abstract

Consumption rates constitute a fundamental, yet relatively elusive quantity in ecophysiology and ecosystem ecology. Measuring consumption rates of highly mobile animals is often challenging, especially in the wild, which makes scientists rely on proxies such as bite rates. However, we still lack a theoretical framework that formally bridges these quantities.

Here we expanded a model based on the Metabolic Theory of Ecology to quantitatively characterise how consumption rates are related to bite rates, and predict how the latter should change with body size, temperature and diet. We test our predictions using mensurative experiments from eight populations of redlip blennies—genus Ophioblennius—across the Atlantic Ocean.

Bite rates scaled with body size according to our theoretical predictions. On the other hand, they increased at a faster‐than‐predicted rate with rising temperatures. This finding might be explained if the energetic content of Ophioblennius spp. diet—which is primarily composed by detritus across all populations—decreases with temperature. Yet, they seem to be consistent with the idea that populations adapted to warmer environments exhibit higher‐than‐expected grazing pressure on primary producers.

Current ocean warming is set to skew body size distributions towards smaller sizes, and our model indicates that the combined effects of smaller sizes and higher temperatures will increase mass‐specific consumption rates, with direct implications for how energy flows through food webs.
It's a hard knock life for some: Heterogeneity in infection life history of salmonids influences parasite disease outcomes
Authors: Bailey Christyn , Strepparava Nicole , Ros Albert , Wahli Thomas , Schmidt‐Posthaus Heike , Segner Helmut , Tafalla Carolina 
Published: June 2021

AbstractHeterogeneity in immunity occurs across numerous disease systems with individuals from the same population having diverse disease outcomes. Proliferative kidney disease (PKD) caused byTetracapsuloides bryosalmonae, is a persistent parasitic disease negatively impacting both wild and farmed salmonids. Little is known of how PKD is spread or maintained within wild susceptible populations.We investigated an aspect of fish disease that has been largely overlooked, that is, the role of the host phenotypic heterogeneity in disease outcome. We examined how host susceptibility toT. bryosalmonaeinfection, and the disease PKD, varied across different infection life‐history stages and how it differs between naïve, re‐infected and persistently infected hosts.We investigated the response to parasite exposure in host phenotypes with (a) different ages and (b) heterogeneous infection life histories. Among (a) the age phenotypes were young‐of‐the‐year (YOY) fish and juvenile 1+ fish (fish older than one) and, for (b) juvenile 1+ infection survivors were either re‐exposed or not re‐ exposed to the parasite and response phenotypes were assigned post‐hoc dependant on infection status. In fish not re‐exposed this included fish that cleared infection (CI) or had a persistent infection (PI). In fish re‐exposed these included fish that were re‐infected (RI), or re‐exposed and uninfected (RCI). We assessed both parasite‐centric (infection prevalence, parasite burden, malacospore transmission) and host‐centric parameters (growth rates, disease severity, infection tolerance and the immune response).In (a), YOY fish, parasite success and disease severity were greater and differences in the immune response occurred, demonstrating an ontogenetic decline of susceptibility in older fish. In (b), in PI and RI fish, parasite success and disease severity were comparable. However, expression of several adaptive immunity markers was greater in RI fish, indicating concomitant immunity, as re‐exposure did not intensify infection.We demonstrate the relevance of heterogeneity in infection life history on disease outcome and describe several distinctive features of immune ontogeny and protective immunity in this model not previously reported. The relevance of such themes on a population level requires greater research in many aquatic disease systems to generate clearer framework for understanding the spread and maintenance of aquatic pathogens.
Ericoid mycorrhizal shrubs alter the relationship between tree mycorrhizal dominance and soil carbon and nitrogen
Authors: Ward Elisabeth B. , Duguid Marlyse C. , Kuebbing Sara E. , Lendemer James C. , Warren Robert J. , Bradford Mark A. 
Published: June 2021

Abstract

Plant–fungal associations strongly influence forest carbon and nitrogen cycling. The prevailing framework for understanding these relationships is through the relative abundance of arbuscular (AM) versus ectomycorrhizal (EcM) trees. Ericoid mycorrhizal (ErM) shrubs are also common in forests and interactions between co‐occurring ErM shrubs and AM and EcM trees could shift soil biogeochemical responses. Here we test hypotheses that the effects of ErM shrubs on soil carbon and nitrogen either extend or are redundant with those of EcM trees.

Using regional vegetation inventory data (>3,500 plot observations) we evaluated the frequency, richness and relative abundance of ErM plants in temperate forests in the eastern United States and examined their relationship with EcM plant cover. We then used surface soil (7 cm) data from 414 plots within a single forest to analyse relationships between ErM plant cover, relative EcM tree basal area and soil carbon and nitrogen concentrations while accounting for other biogeochemical controls, such as soil moisture.

At both scales, we found a positive relationship between ErM and EcM plants, and the majority of ErM plants were in the shrub layer. Within the forest site, ErM plants strongly modulated tree mycorrhizal dominance effects. We found negative relationships between EcM relative basal area and soil carbon and nitrogen concentrations, but these relationships were weak to negligible in the absence of ErM plants. Both EcM relative basal area and ErM plant cover were positively associated with the soil carbon‐to‐nitrogen ratio. However, this relationship was driven by relatively lower nitrogen for EcM trees and higher carbon for ErM plants. As such, the functional effects of ErM plants on soil biogeochemistry neither extended nor were redundant with those of EcM trees.

Synthesis. We found that ErM shrubs strongly influenced the relationship between tree mycorrhizal associations and soil biogeochemistry, and the effects of ErM shrubs and EcM trees on carbon and nitrogen were functionally distinct. Our findings suggest that ErM shrubs could confound interpretation of AM versus EcM tree effects in ecosystems where they co‐occur but also bolster growing calls to consider mycorrhizal functional types as variables that strongly influence forest biogeochemistry.
State Policymaking and Stated Reasons: Prenatal Care for Undocumented Immigrants in an Era of Abortion Restriction
Authors: FABI RACHEL E. , SALONER BRENDAN , TAYLOR HOLLY 
Published: June 2021

Policy Points
States can create policies that provide access to publicly funded prenatal care for undocumented immigrants that garner support from diverse political coalitions.
Policymakers have used a wide range of moral and practical reasons to support the expansion of care to this population, which can be tailored to frame prenatal policies for different stakeholder groups.
ContextEven though nearly 6% of citizen babies born in the United States have at least one undocumented parent, undocumented immigrants are ineligible for most public health insurance. Prenatal care is a recommended health service that improves birth outcomes, and some states, including both traditionally “blue” and “red” states, have opted to provide publicly funded coverage for prenatal services for people who are otherwise ineligible due to immigration status. This article explores how courts and legislatures in three states have approached the question of publicly funded prenatal care for undocumented immigrants and its relationship to the abortion debate, with a particular focus on the moral and practical justifications that policymakers employ.MethodsWe employed a review and qualitative analysis of the documents that comprise the legislative histories of prenatal policies in three case states: California, New York, and Nebraska.FindingsThis review and analysis of policy documents identified moral reasons based on appeals to different conceptions of moral status, respect for autonomy, and justice, as well as prudential reasons that appealed to the health and economic benefits of prenatal care for US citizens and legal residents. We found that much of the variation in reasons supporting policies by state can be traced to the state's position on the protection of reproductive rights and whether the policymakers in each state supported or opposed access to abortion. Interestingly, despite these differences, the states arrived at similar prenatal policies for immigrants.ConclusionsThere may be areas where policymakers with different political orientations can converge on health policies affecting access to care for undocumented immigrants. Future research should explore the reception of various message frames for expanding public health insurance coverage to immigrants in other contexts.
Broad‐scale applications of the Raspberry Pi: A review and guide for biologists
Authors: Jolles Jolle W. 
Published: June 2021

Abstract

The field of biology has seen tremendous technological progress in recent years, fuelled by the exponential growth in processing power and high‐level computing, and the rise of global information sharing. Low‐cost single‐board computers are predicted to be one of the key technological advancements to further revolutionise this field.

So far, an overview of current uptake of these devices and a general guide to help researchers integrate them in their work has been missing. In this paper I focus on the most widely used single‐board computer, the Raspberry Pi, and review its broad applications and uses across the biological domain.

Since its release in 2012, the Raspberry Pi has been increasingly taken up by biologists, in the laboratory, the field and in the classroom, and across a wide range of disciplines. A hugely diverse range of applications exists that ranges from simple solutions to dedicated custom‐build devices, including nest‐box monitoring, wildlife camera trapping, high‐throughput behavioural recording, large‐scale plant phenotyping, underwater video surveillance, closed‐loop operant learning experiments and autonomous ecosystem monitoring. Despite the breadth of its implementations, the depth of uptake of the Raspberry Pi by the scientific community is still limited.

The broad capabilities of the Raspberry Pi, combined with its low cost, ease of use and large user community make it a great research tool for almost any project. To help accelerate the uptake of the Raspberry Pi by the scientific community, I provide detailed guidelines, recommendations and considerations, and 30+ step‐by‐step guides on a dedicated accompanying website (http://raspberrypi‐guide.github.io). I hope this paper will help generate more awareness about the Raspberry Pi among scientists and thereby both fuel the democratisation of science and ultimately help advance our understanding of biology, from the micro‐ to the macro‐scale.
Identifying a novel biological mechanism for alcohol addiction associated with circRNA networks acting as potential miRNA sponges
Authors: Vornholt Eric , Drake John , Mamdani Mohammed , McMichael Gowon , Taylor Zachary N. , Bacanu Silviu‐Alin , Miles Michael F. , Vladimirov Vladimir I. 
Published: June 2021

AbstractOur lab and others have shown that chronic alcohol use leads to gene and miRNA expression changes across the mesocorticolimbic (MCL) system. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are noncoding RNAs that form closed‐loop structures and are reported to alter gene expression through miRNA sequestration, thus providing a potentially novel neurobiological mechanism for the development of alcohol dependence (AD). Genome‐wide expression of circRNA was assessed in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) from 32 AD‐matched cases/controls. Significant circRNAs (unadj. p ≤ 0.05) were identified via regression and clustered in circRNA networks via weighted gene co‐expression network analysis (WGCNA). CircRNA interactions with previously generated mRNA and miRNA were detected via correlation and bioinformatic analyses. Significant circRNAs (N = 542) clustered in nine significant AD modules (FWER p ≤ 0.05), within which we identified 137 circRNA hubs. We detected 23 significant circRNA–miRNA–mRNA interactions (FDR ≤ 0.10). Among these, circRNA‐406742 and miR‐1200 significantly interact with the highest number of mRNA, including genes associated with neuronal functioning and alcohol addiction (HRAS, PRKCB, HOMER1, and PCLO). Finally, we integrate genotypic information that revealed 96 significant circRNA expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) (unadj. p ≤ 0.002) that showed significant enrichment within recent alcohol use disorder (AUD) and smoking genome‐wide association study (GWAS). To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the role of circRNA in the neuropathology of AD. We show that circRNAs impact mRNA expression by interacting with miRNA in the NAc of AD subjects. More importantly, we provide indirect evidence for the clinical importance of circRNA in the development of AUD by detecting a significant enrichment of our circRNA eQTLs among GWAS of substance abuse.
Merged phytosociological and geographical approach for multiple scale vegetation mapping as a baseline for public environmental policy in Mexico
Authors: Velazquez Alejandro , Medina‐García Consuelo , Gopar‐Merino Fernando , Duran Elvira , Pérez‐Vega Azucena , Mas Jean‐François , Giménez de Azcarate Joaquín , Blanco‐García Arnulfo , López‐Barrera Faustino , Castro‐López Valerio , Aguirre Rocío 
Published: June 2021

AbstractQuestionsWhat is the potential use of maps derived from a merged geographical and phytosociological approach to support the design of public environmental policies? Do these approaches and data sources deliver complementary land‐cover/vegetation maps?ObjectiveThe present article documents a joint phytosociological and geographical approach to improve vegetation cartography in temperate‐tropical transitional ecosystems.LocationThe research was conducted at national (Mexico) and state (Michoacán) scales. Mexico and Michoacán have been recognized as regions of high eco‐geographical complexity, where temperate‐tropical conditions intermingle, creating large eco‐socio‐cultural mosaics.MethodsData from 268 field verification sites and 223 relevés surveyed during the last two decades and recent land cover sources were used as the main inputs. The results were further validated by three workshops with local botanists and field verification during 2021.ResultsAt the national level, Mexico's forests, shrubs, herbs, and non‐vascular major formation classes were hierarchically split by dominant life forms and prevailing climatic affiliations. At the state level, these major formation classes split into 19 sub‐formations, of which 15 were forest communities.ConclusionsWe discuss the scientific challenge of transitioning from land cover into vegetation maps and (dis)similarities of approaches reviewing concepts and analytical (quanti)qualitative instruments. The paper contrasts the present output with the experiences of other countries such as Canada, the United States, Bolivia, and Colombia. Finally, the results are discussed in light of their relevance for constructing public environmental policies, such as land use planning, establishment of protected areas, allocation of incentives for sustainable environmental services, and long‐term conservation practices.