bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Western diet increases COVID-19 disease severity in the Syrian hamster
Authors: Port Julia R. , Adney Danielle R. , Schwarz Benjamin , Schulz Jonathan E. , Sturdevant Daniel E. , Smith Brian J. , Avanzato Victoria A. , Holbrook Myndi G. , Purushotham Jyothi N. , Stromberg Kaitlin A. , Leighton Ian , Bosio Catharine M. , Shaia Carl , Munster Vincent J. 
Published: June 2021

SummaryPre-existing comorbidities such as obesity or metabolic diseases can adversely affect the clinical outcome of COVID-19. Chronic metabolic disorders are globally on the rise and often a consequence of an unhealthy diet, referred to as a Western Diet. For the first time in the Syrian hamster model, we demonstrate the detrimental impact of a continuous high-fat high-sugar diet on COVID-19 outcome. We observed increased weight loss and lung pathology, such as exudate, vasculitis, hemorrhage, fibrin, and edema, delayed viral clearance and functional lung recovery, and prolonged viral shedding. This was accompanied by an increased trend of systemic IL-10 and IL-6, as well as a dysregulated serum lipid response dominated by polyunsaturated fatty acid-containing phosphatidylethanolamine, recapitulating cytokine and lipid responses associated with severe human COVID-19. Our data support the hamster model for testing restrictive or targeted diets and immunomodulatory therapies to mediate the adverse effects of metabolic disease on COVID-19.
Please do not disturb: the effect of Zero-Contact Marketing on Korean consumers' decision-making process
Authors: Park Arim , An Hyun Sang , Song Ju Myung , Chung Christina 
Published: June 2021

PurposeThis study examines the effectiveness of Zero-Contact Marketing that minimizes contact between employees and consumers in marketplaces by adopting an integrated research framework of motivation theory, servicescape model and the theory of reasoned action (TRA).Design/methodology/approachThis study randomly collected 314 respondents through an online survey in May 2020 in South Korea. Structural equation modeling (SEM) assessed the overall hypothetical research model.FindingsZero-Contact Marketing facilitates the positive impacts of Korean consumers' motivations (intrinsic and extrinsic) and service environment on their word-of-mouth (WOM) intention to spread information about a store offering Zero-Contact Marketing service and the store revisit intention. In addition, consumers' attitude toward Zero-Contact Marketing and shopping pleasure (SPL) has stronger impacts on consumers' WOM intention than they do on the store revisit intention.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitation of this study lies in that the survey participants responded only in South Korea, which may lead to biased results. To provide a more generalized insight, this study should be extended by considering consumers in other countries, since many consumers around the world tend to minimize face-to-face interaction and avoid unnecessary interruptions under the current pandemic.Practical implicationsBy minimizing the social interaction between employees and consumers, Zero-Contact Marketing may increase consumers' shopping satisfaction with free shopping moments and no disturbance, especially under the COVID-19 pandemic.Originality/valueThe findings provide theoretical contributions by empirically validating the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and service environment on consumers' internal and external responses in a Zero-Contact retail setting.
Drug places and spaces of problematisation: the melancholy case of a Hungarian needle exchange programme
Authors: Dányi Endre , Csák Róbert 
Published: June 2021

PurposeThis paper aims to explore multiple problematisation processes through a former needle exchange programme run by Kék Pont (a non-governmental organisation) in the 8th district of Budapest. By presenting a collage of ethnographic stories, this paper attempts to preserve tacit knowledge associated with the programme and thereby keep its office alive as a “drug place”, the operation of which was made impossible in 2014.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the insights of Foucauldian governmentality studies and actor-network theory, this paper focusses on drug use as a problem in its spatial-material settings. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, the contribution traces multiple problematisation processes and related infrastructures.FindingsFrom the needle exchange programme’s perspective, drug use is not a singular problem but the effect of multiple problematisation processes. Although those processes are often in conflict with each other, the question is not which one is right, but how social workers manage to hold them together. It is a fragile achievement that requires years of training and ongoing negotiation with local actors. By eliminating Kék Pont’s 8th district office, the Hungarian Government did not only hinder harm reduction in the area but it had also rendered tacit knowledge associated with the needle exchange programme as a “drug place” inaccessible.Originality/valueThe paper is a melancholy intervention – an attempt to preserve tacit knowledge that had accumulated at the needle exchange programme. The retelling of ethnographic stories about this “drug place” is one way of ensuring that other drug policies remain imaginable.
A quasi-nonlocal coupling method for bond-based peridynamics with classical continuum mechanics
Authors: Jiang Feng , Shen Yongxing 
Published: June 2021

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose a novel quasi-nonlocal coupling of the bond-based peridynamic model with the classical continuum mechanics model to fully take advantage of their merits and be free of ghost forces.Design/methodology/approachThis study reconstructs a total energy functional by introducing a coupling parameter that alters only the nonlocal interactions in the coupling region rather than the whole region and a modified elasticity tensor that affects the local interactions. Then, the consistency of force patch test is enforced in the coupling region to completely eliminate the ghost force in a general energy-based coupling scheme. For a one-dimensional problem, these coupling parameters are further determined through an energy patch test to preserve the energy equivalence or through an l1-regularization. And, for a two- or three-dimensional problem, depending on the existence of a solution to the discretized force patch test, they are determined through an l1-minimization or l1-regularization.FindingsOne- and two-dimensional numerical examples under affine deformation have been conducted to verify the accuracy of the quasi-nonlocal coupling method, which exhibits no ghost force. Moreover, the coupling model can reproduce almost the same deformation behaviors of points near the crack for a cracked plate under tension as that from a pure peridynamic model, the former with a rather low computational cost and an easier application of boundary conditions.Originality/valueThis work is aiming at getting over long-standing ghost force issues in the energy-based coupling scheme. The numerical results from the cracked plate problem are exhibited promising extension to dynamic problems.
Agency costs and credit availability: an international study
Authors: Bahlous-Boldi Mejda 
Published: June 2021

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the link between agency costs mitigation via three levels of rights protection (minority rights protection, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency issues) provides the propitious climate for financing investment opportunities around the world.Design/methodology/approachWe use Bartlett’s three-group method to stratify countries based on how well they protect investors as measured by the scores provided in the Doing Business dataset developed by the world bank for 189 countries. We then test a variety of independent hypotheses that the alleviation of agency costs via three levels of protection (minority investors’ rights, contract enforcement, resolving insolvency issues) is associated with better access to credit via the banking system, better valuation of listed firms via the stock market and higher investment and growth.FindingsOur findings support Agency Theory which explains why the absence of legal protection of external investors leads to stock markets and financial institutions failing to fulfill their role of financing the economy.Practical implicationsThe policy implication from this study indicates that countries ought to (1) develop legislation that protects investors’ rights, (2) improve the quality of their judicial system in terms of enforcing the legislation and (3) build the framework for resolving disputes during insolvency as these are important ingredients for a developed financial system.Originality/valueWe use the World bank dataset and a new methodology to quantify the significance of the relationship between minority rights protection, ineffective enforcement, lack of bankruptcy laws and access to firm financing via the banking sector and the stock market. It provides new evidence that the quality of the judicial system in a country matter for firms’ ability to raise financing and enhance value creation.
“I like the first slide. I like how we put it like that [words and pictures on a diagonal]:” composing multimodal texts in a grade four classroom
Authors: Seely Flint Amy , Rohloff Rebecca , Williams Sarah 
Published: June 2021

PurposeYoung children often enter formal schooling with a range of digital experiences, including using apps on tablets and engaging with interactive educational toys. The convergence and increased accessibility of digital resources has made it more convenient for young children to navigate multiple modes (e.g. words, images, sound and movement) as they construct meaning across many different texts. The purpose of the study is to examine affordances and choices when students compose multimodal texts.Design/methodology/approachThree lines of inquiry support this study: the social construction of writing practices, multiliteracies and multimodality and intertextuality. Data analysis used an iterative two-tiered process of reading, rereading and coding students’ multimodal compositions and supplemental field notes (Creswell, 1998; Strauss and Corbin, 1998).FindingsAnalysis of the 23 multimodal compositions revealed three significant findings related to choice and affordances of multimodal texts: the popularity of Minecraft as a topic choice based on the social interactions of students; semiotic concurrence and semiotic complementarity and sophisticated use of literary techniques (e.g. nonlinear structures, shifting point of view, asides and emojis) across the multimodal stories, particularly those that carried Minecraft themes.Originality/valueStudents’ intentionality with the modes in their compositions suggested they were fully aware of the “complexity, interrelatedness and interdependence between image [animation and sound] and language” (Shanahan, 2013, p. 213).
Promoting awareness of sex trafficking in tourism and hospitality
Authors: Aston Joshua , Wen Jun , Goh Edmund , Maurer Oswin 
Published: June 2021

Purpose
This cutting-edge short commentary is intended to raise awareness of sex trafficking in the tourism and hospitality industry. The purpose of this paper is to also advocate for further research to identify and hopefully prevent sex trafficking in related settings.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper provides a descriptive overview of the current knowledge base on sex trafficking in tourism and hospitality. Based on gaps in the literature, future research agendas and directions are suggested.

Findings
Academic research on sex trafficking in tourism and hospitality remains limited. More scholarly attention is needed to this matter. The tourism industry is directly and indirectly associated with sex trafficking (e.g. hotel accommodations and direct consumption of sexual services, such as through sex tourism). Despite legislative efforts by international government agencies to eradicate sex trafficking, the problem remains pervasive. Broader practice- and research-based intervention efforts are needed.

Originality/value
This short commentary advocates for tourism and hospitality researchers to make practical and theoretical industry contributions that may help prevent sex trafficking.
Social capital inequality and capital structure of new firms in a developing country: the role of bank ties
Authors: Ngo Vi Dung , Evansluong Quang , Janssen Frank , Nguyen Duc Khuong 
Published: June 2021

PurposeThis article aims to clarify the role of social capital and social capital inequality embedded in bank ties in enabling and diversifying new firms' debt use.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts a quantitative method, using an unbalanced longitudinal dataset covering three years–2011, 2013 and 2015–from a project on small manufacturing enterprises in Vietnam. The sample consists of 513 firm-year observations.FindingsNetwork extensity and network mobilisation increase new firms' debt use. Differences in ascribed and attained social statuses (i.e. gender, generation, business association membership and political affiliation) result in social capital inequality between entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs who are of a younger generation, have higher levels of education and are not members of the Communist Party benefit less from social capital than those who are older, have less education and are party members.Originality/valueThe effects of access to and the use of the social capital embedded in bank ties on new firms' debt use are both studied. The sources of social capital inequality are investigated at the individual level through distinguishing ascribed and attained social statuses and explained by two mechanisms: capital deficit and return deficit. The moderating effects of social capital inequality are also examined.
Bank regulation and credit crunch: evidence from MENA region commercial banks
Authors: EL-Moussawi Chawki , Kassem Mohamad , Roussel Josse 
Published: June 2021

PurposeThis paper focuses on the relationship between the regulatory capital requirements and the supply of credit for commercial banks that are operating in the MENA region from 1999 till 2017.Design/methodology/approachThe application of the Fixed Effects Model on a panel of commercial banks in the MENA region has shown a negative relationship between supply of credit and both the capital requirements and solvency ratios.FindingsThe results showed that the idiosyncratic, the macroeconomic and the institutional variables affect the supply of credit behavior of banks. The robustness tests using the Two-Stage Least Square method (2SLS) also led to a negative correlation between the growth of credit and capital requirements. Specific macroeconomic and institutional variables have revealed the expected sign and are significant regardless of the estimated specifications.Research limitations/implicationsThis work can be subjected to further future extensions. The explanatory power of our model can be improved by incorporating variables that reflect the corporate governance and structure of banking sector. Similarly, we can also include a variable that takes into account the increasing competition that could affect the stability of the banking sector and therefore the prudential banking regulation.Originality/valuePrevious studies that investigated only the relationship between capital level and risk-taking behavior of banks in the MENA region did not take into account neither the economic and institutional environment nor the impact of these regulations on credit (loans) supply.
Do external benchmarking mechanisms facilitate performance management in Malaysian local authorities?
Authors: Siti-Nabiha A.K. , George Roshni Ann 
Published: June 2021

PurposeThis paper investigates the extent to which externally led benchmarking may have facilitated performance management design and use in Malaysian local authorities.Design/methodology/approachA longitudinal qualitative study of local authorities in Malaysia was undertaken, comprising interviews with key officers during the introduction of process-based key performance indicators (KPIs), and following the imposition of benchmarking (i.e. relative performance evaluation) on local authorities. Complexity theory was used in the analysing and theorising of data.FindingsExternal benchmarking mechanisms facilitated only operational performance management, with strategic performance management merely ceremonially adopted. As the focus was on mainly operational KPIs, strategic goals were not translated into detailed action plans and outputs at departmental level. In addition, operational and strategic performance management packages were decoupled. Thus, the efforts of external actors resulted in operational controls suppressing rather than facilitating strategic processes.Research limitations/implicationsThere is a need to transition from purely externally led benchmarking to internally driven benchmarking in local government, whereby benchmarking forms part of the interactive performance management mechanisms that lead to institutional learning and improvement.Practical implicationsBenchmarking activities should be based on comprehensive analyses of performance management design and use. A reflective approach to continuously identify gaps or weaknesses in performance management systems will enable local government administrators to improve systems and processes in a timely manner to meet stakeholder needs.Originality/valueThis paper explains the impact of central government policy and benchmarking initiatives on other levels of government. We have built on previous literature by examining the connection between external benchmarking and internal performance management design and use in local government. In relation to this, and following calls for research on holistic performance management, the integration between operational and strategic performance management packages was also examined.
The power of impossible
Authors: Asselineau Alexandre , Grolleau Gilles 
Published: June 2021

Purpose
Labeling something as “impossible” can be performative and deprive businesses from promising ideas, by activating limiting mental models and self-fulfilling prophecies. Adopting an “everything may be(come) possible” thinking as the default option can lead businesses to discover unexpected and valuable directions and make the world a better place. This paper aims to propose practical insights to harness the power of “impossible” thinking such as considering impossibility as a current and temporary state, adopting an unconventional mindset and redirecting the reflection on what is needed to make the idea possible. Falling in love with any impossible target is obviously not without downsides.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper discusses conceptually how adopting an impossible thinking approach can help business to discover unexpected and valuable directions.

Findings
The authors caution managers on the inappropriate use of the “impossible” label that can be performative, activate a limiting mental model, lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy and deprive businesses from promising ideas. This paper proposes ways by which the power of impossible thinking can be harnessed to make a difference.

Research limitations/implications
Discarding impossible ideas seems perfectly justified from a logical or cultural viewpoint while constituting simultaneously a bad decision from a business viewpoint. The generalization of authors’ insight must be undertaken with caution, given that harnessing the power of impossible does not mean to fall in love with any impossible idea.

Practical implications
Learning to not neglect seemingly impossible options and sometimes to reveal them can lead to sustainable competitive advantages.

Social implications
While generating a competitive advantage for the concerned companies, implementing impossible ideas can also contribute to make the world a better place.

Originality/value
The authors identify some mechanisms that can make impossible thinking beneficial and profitable for companies. These insights can help managers to nurture an environment that facilitates the emergence of pathbreaking advances.
Money at risk: climate change and performance of Canadian banking sector
Authors: U-Din Salah , Nazir Mian Sajid , Shahzad Aamer 
Published: June 2021

PurposeIn the last few decades, the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events have increased in most parts of the world including Canada because of global warming. The global warming in Canada is about double the magnitude of global warming; therefore, policymakers are concerned about the potential significant impact of the weather catastrophes on the economy and financial sector. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of weather catastrophes on the Canadian banking sector.Design/methodology/approachUsing a sample of banking firms from Canada over the period 1988–2019, the present study estimates different econometric techniques to investigate the impact of weather catastrophes on the risk and performance of Canadian banks.FindingsAnalyses of the study do not find a significant impact of the weather catastrophes on the performance of the Canadian banks; however, it has helped banks to lower their risk level and improve stability due to proactive risk management. The findings of this study are not consistent with concerns of the policymakers about climate risk to the Canadian bank sector. More sector-specific research and policy initiatives are recommended to minimize the future financial risk of the increased frequency and intensity of natural disasters.Originality/valueThe study contributes to support the notion that the climate risk of banks is protected with insurance and reconstruction activities provide more banking opportunities.
Tax evasion and money laundering: a complete framework
Authors: Kemsley Deen , Kemsley Sean A. , Morgan Frank T. 
Published: June 2021

Purpose
This paper aims to define the fundamental nexus between income tax evasion and money laundering. The G7 Financial Action Task Force (FATF) designates tax evasion as a predicate offense for money laundering. We determine whether this designation is complete from a conceptual standpoint, or whether there is a stronger connection between tax evasion and money laundering.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper applies the FATF definition for money laundering – as well as generally accepted definitions for tax evasion and for a standard predicate offense – to identify the necessary conditions for each crime. This paper then uses these conditions to test opposing hypotheses regarding the nexus between tax evasion and money laundering.

Findings
This paper demonstrates that tax evasion does not meet the conditions for a standard predicate offense, and treating it as if it were a standard predicate could be problematic in practice. Instead, it is concluded that the FATF’s predicate label for tax evasion, together with tax evasion methods and objectives, imply that all tax evasion constitutes money laundering. In a single process, tax evasion generates both criminal tax savings and launders those criminal proceeds by concealing or disguising their unlawful origin.

Practical implications
The FATF could strengthen its framework by explicitly defining all tax evasion as money laundering. This would enable regulatory agencies to draw upon the full combined resources dedicated to either offense.

Originality/value
The analysis demonstrates that tax evasion completely incorporates money laundering as currently defined by the FATF.