bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The effectiveness of an integrated counseling program on emotional regulation among undergraduate students with depression
Authors: Ritkumrop Kwanjai , Surakarn Amaraporn , Ekpanyaskul Chatchai 
Published: March 2021

PurposeThis study investigated the effectiveness of a new counseling program integrating cognitive behavioral therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy to promote emotional regulation (ER) among undergraduate students with depression.Design/methodology/approachAn interventional mixed method design was employed with the development of a qualitative method-based program using experimental and qualitative research. The sample consisted of 792 third-year undergraduate students at a public university in Bangkok. A total of 34 students with depression voluntarily enrolled and were divided into 2 groups. The 17 students in the experimental group received integrated counseling, while those in the control group received brochures. The effectiveness was evaluated using the self-assessment section on the ER scale and the Beck Depression Inventory form before and after counseling. When the program ended, qualitative research was conducted using in-depth interviews. In terms of quantitative research, the data were analyzed using one-way MANOVA and the qualitative research data used content analysis.FindingsThe mean scores for ER and depression in the experimental group before and after counseling were significantly different (p-value <0.05). Results were also significantly different from the control group (p-value <0.05). Students with depression showed improvements in ER in all six components after joining the program, including awareness, clarity, acceptance, impulse, goals and strategies.Originality/valueIntegrated counseling is an effective program that can increase ER and reduce depression among adolescents and can be an alternative program for depressive patients or other mood-regulating problems to promote ER.
A model for lead conversions through cold calling in startup B2B services firms in India: a sense-making derivation
Authors: Raj Abishek Santhosh , Shagirbasha Shameem , Madhan Kumar 
Published: March 2021

PurposeCold calling being one of the most preferred modes of sales strategies in the past, with all digital platforms setting in, is it still the best option a B2B service firm has? To seek answer to this interesting question is the purpose of this paper. The study seeks to understand the contributions of both the sales force and the digital marketing team towards lead conversion. The paper also aims to derive a sense-making model for lead conversion based on a few propositions of the study.Design/methodology/approachThe authors have adopted mixed method approach. The authors have chosen a small enterprise offering B2B services to understand the sales process. The past one-year cold calling data were analyzed. In addition, 15 in-depth interviews were conducted among the managers and the executives of the firm. The study adopts the AIDA model of customer response and the stages of selling process to better map the sales process of the firm. Based on the analysis, a new model is proposed to aid lead conversions.FindingsThe findings suggest that cold calling is not an effective mode of sales strategies in this case as the firm experienced a very low conversion rate. However, with the integration of digital marketing efforts with sales process, the sales team could achieve higher conversion rate.Originality/valueVery few studies in the literature examines the effectiveness of cold calling strategy integrated with digital marketing efforts. This is one of the few studies examining cold calling strategy in B2B service firm in India.
A hybrid model for ranking critical successful factors of Lean Six Sigma in the oil and gas industry
Authors: Yazdi Amir Karbassi , Hanne Thomas , Osorio Gómez Juan Carlos 
Published: March 2021

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to find and prioritise multiple critical success factors (CSFs) for the implementation of LSS in the oil and gas industry.Design/methodology/approachBased on a preselected list of possible CFSs, experts are involved in screening them with the Delphi method. As a result, 22 customised CSFs are selected. To prioritise these CSFs, the step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) method is applied to find weights corresponding to the decision-making preferences. Since the regular permutation-based weight assessment can be classified as NP-hard, the problem is solved by a metaheuristic method. For this purpose, a genetic algorithm (GA) is used.FindingsThe resulting prioritisation of CSFs helps companies find out which factors have a high priority in order to focus on them. The less important factors can be neglected and thus do not require limited resources.Research limitations/implicationsOnly a specific set of methods have been considered.Practical implicationsThe resulting prioritisation of CSFs helps companies find out which factors have a high priority in order to focus on them.Social implicationsThe methodology supports respective evaluations in general.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the very limited research on the implementation of LSS in the oil and gas industry, and, in addition, it suggests the usage of SWARA, a permutation method and a GA, which have not yet been researched, for the prioritisation of CSFs of LSS.
Relation between foreign ownership and firm value – Fixed-effect panel threshold regression analysis
Authors: Kansil Ruchi 
Published: March 2021

PurposeThe paper examines the differential impact of various firm characteristics on firm value across various threshold levels of foreign ownership.Design/methodology/approachUsing a panel of 408 Indian publicly listed companies for the period during 2010–2018, a fixed-effect panel threshold regression model is adapted to study the threshold effects between foreign ownership and firm value. Tobin's Q is used as a proxy for firm value.FindingsThe study identifies three threshold levels, that is, four threshold regions in which foreign ownership changes its slope considerably. Various firm characteristics impact firm value differently in these four regions.Research limitations/implicationsThe study employs observations of the past nine years on variables identified as firm characteristics impacting firm value. Some variables are dropped due to the problem of multicollinearity. The employed variables may not be exhaustive in nature.Practical implicationsThe present study implies that there exists no impact of foreign ownership on the value of the firm. Foreign investors invest for financial considerations and not with the objective of governing the firms. The governance effect of foreign investments is negligible, so their activism in the firms needs to be encouraged.Originality/valueThe study employs a novel approach to study the impact of foreign ownership on firm value applying fixed effect panel data threshold regression, considering foreign ownership as a proxy of corporate governance.
Institutional Ownership and Firms’ Thrust to Compete
Authors: Andreou Panayiotis C. , Fiordelisi Franco , Harris Terry , Philip Dennis 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThis paper provides evidence on the impact of transient (short‐term) institutional investors on a firm's thrust to compete. A firm's thrust to compete, as an attribute of corporate culture, captures the relative importance of corporate values that push a firm to achieve shareholder value in the short term by emphasizing goal achievement, fast response to external information and enhanced competitiveness. We find that greater ownership by transient investors results in firms intensifying their future thrust to compete, suggesting that firms respond to these investors’ preferences and competitive pressures for achieving short‐term value creation. In line with our expectations, this effect is not observed for firms with greater ownership by long‐horizon institutional investors, who are incentivized to place their emphasis on long‐term firm value over short‐term gains. Our findings reveal that the composition of institutional ownership influences the organizational culture of firms in a non‐homogeneous way. As such, we provide significant empirical insights for the ongoing debate on the implications arising from the behind‐the‐scenes engagement of institutional investors with management.
Strategic translation: pollution, data, and Indigenous Traditional Knowledge
Authors: Blacker Sarah 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThis essay examines the role of data practices in the making and refuting of settler colonial environmental science. Investigating the epistemic contestation surrounding environmental contamination produced by the oil industry in Alberta, Canada, I discuss an alternative approach to toxicology: a community‐based monitoring programme that uses a ‘three‐track’ methodology to present data in three distinct forms. Using this method, First Nations communities engaged in strategic translation, balancing their aim of rendering Traditional Knowledge and community needs legible to policy‐makers against their desire to protect Traditional Knowledge from being assimilated into the dominant data paradigm. This translation, I argue, enacts a form of resistance in an era of relentless datafication: making‐things‐into‐data can reflect the exercise of agency rather than submission to external pressure. In this way, the three‐track methodology models how marginalized communities can leverage data's productive capacities for their own ends and produce scientific knowledge on their own terms.
Bacterial fermentation and isotope labelling optimized for amyloidogenic proteins
Authors: Vida István , Fazekas Zsolt , Gyulai Gergő , Nagy‐Fazekas Dóra , Pálfy Gyula , Stráner Pál , Kiss Éva , Perczel András 
Published: March 2021

SummaryWe developed a cost sensitive isotope labelling procedure using a fed‐batch fermentation method and tested its efficiency producing the 15N‐, 13C‐ and 15N/13C‐labelled variants of an amyloidogenic miniprotein (E5: EEEAVRLYIQWLKEGGPSSGRPPPS). E5 is a surface active protein, which forms amyloids in solution. Here, we confirm, using both PM‐IRRAS and AFM measurements, that the air–water interface triggers structural rearrangement and promotes the amyloid formation of E5, and thus it is a suitable test protein to work out efficient isotope labelling schemes even for such difficult sequences. E. coli cells expressing the recombinant, ubiquitin‐fused miniprotein were grown in minimal media containing either unlabelled nutrients, or 15N‐NH4Cl and/or 13C‐D‐Glc. The consumption rates of NH4Cl and D‐Glc were quantitatively monitored during fermentation and their ratio was established to be 1:5 (for NH4Cl: D‐Glc). One‐ and two‐step feeding schemes were custom‐optimized to enhance isotope incorporation expressing five different E5 miniprotein variants. With the currently optimized protocols we could achieve a 1.5‐ to 5‐fold increase of yields of several miniproteins coupled to a similar magnitude of cost reduction as compared to flask labelling protocols.
Moderators of the association between regular smoking exposure and motivation and attempts to quit: a repeat cross‐sectional study
Authors: Tattan‐Birch Harry , Brown Jamie , Kock Loren , Shahab Lion 
Published: March 2021

AbstractAimsTo estimate the associations between regular exposure to smoking by other people and motivation and attempts to quit among current smokers. To examine whether socio‐demographic and other factors moderate these associations.DesignA repeat nationally representative cross‐sectional survey. Data were collected monthly between November 2014 and February 2019.SettingEngland.ParticipantsCurrent smokers ≥16 years of age from the Smoking Toolkit Study (n = 15 136).MeasurementsParticipants were asked whether other people regularly smoke in their presence, how motivated they were to quit and whether they had made a quit attempt in the past year. Moderators assessed were occupation‐based social grade, housing tenure, urges to smoke, high‐risk alcohol consumption, and disability. Adjusted analyses included moderators, socio‐demographic (age/sex/ethnicity/sexual orientation/marital status/children in household) and seasonal (quarter/year) confounders.FindingsCurrent smokers who were regularly exposed to other people smoking in their presence were less likely to be highly motivated to quit (OR = 0.88 [95% CI 0.80–0.97]), but were no less likely to have made a quit attempt in the past year (OR 1.04 [0.97–1.13], Bayes Factor (BF) = 0.05). The inverse relationship between regular smoking exposure and motivation to quit was moderated by urges to smoke, such that exposure was only associated with a reduction in motivation among those without strong urges to smoke (OR 0.83 [0.75–0.93] versus OR 1.04 [0.86–1.26]; P = 0.048). None of the other factors significantly moderated the association with motivation to quit, and none moderated the relationship between regular smoking exposure and quit attempts. All non‐significant interactions, except social grade (BF = 1.44) with quit attempts, had Bayes Factors that supported the hypothesis of no moderation (BF range: 0.12–0.21).ConclusionsAmong current smokers in England, regular exposure to other smokers appears to be associated with lower motivation to quit in people without strong urges to smoke, yet there appears to be no association with quit attempts in the previous year. Social grade, housing tenure, high‐risk alcohol consumption and disability do not moderate these associations.
Bromeliad habitat regulates the richness of associated terrestrial and aquatic fauna
Authors: Laviski Bianca Ferreira da Silva , Monteiro Ícaro de Moraes , de Pinho Luiz Carlos , Baptista Renner Luiz Cerqueira , Mayhé‐Nunes Antonio José , Racca‐Filho Francisco , Nunes‐Freitas André Felippe 
Published: March 2021

AbstractBromeliads harbour a great diversity of fauna species. The epiphytic habit of bromeliads is subject to higher temperatures and higher incidence of light than is the epigeic habit, so we expected individuals of the Vriesea neoglutinosa species to differ in terms of the composition, richness and abundance of their fauna associated with different bromeliad habits. We carried out a study in a restinga area on Marambaia Island, Brazil. We collected 32 bromeliads, of which 16 were epigeic and 16 were epiphytic, and found a total of 1125 individual animals of 88 morphospecies. Arthropods stood out in the sample, among which 68.2% were insects. Aquatic fauna was richer in epigeic bromeliads, and terrestrial fauna was richer in epiphytic bromeliads. As expected, species composition was different for aquatic and terrestrial fauna. The heterogeneity of the restinga environment and differences in the development stages of the fauna may be factors that influence its composition. Both bromeliad habits sustain fauna with several trophic guilds that compose a complex food web and depend on the bromeliad environment. As different habits lead to different fauna types, both epigeic and epiphytic bromeliads play a role in the maintenance of local biodiversity and are important for macrofauna conservation in restingas.
Population biology of the unusual thermoconforming lizards of the Andes Mountains of Peru (Squamata: Gymnophthalmidae)
Authors: Doan Tiffany M. , Sheffer Sara A. , Warmington Nicholas R. , Evans Eliot E. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractMontane animals require different adaptations than lowland species because of more severe conditions. Proctoporus lizards of the Andes Mountains experience cold temperatures year‐round, which may affect their activity. Two species of this poorly known genus, P. unsaacae and P. sucullucu, have similar morphology and ecology, but had never been studied in detail. The purpose of this project was to compare the population biology of the two species and to ascertain whether they were more likely to share ecological similarities with phylogenetic relatives or with other unrelated lizards of the Andes. We established two permanent plots in the Sacred Valley of the Incas in Cusco region, Peru, and examined the thermal ecology, movement, sex ratio, longevity, population sizes, growth patterns, reproduction and other factors over a period of 4 years. Proctoporus unsaacae and P. sucullucu were similar in most aspects of their ecology except that P. sucullcu was larger, had smaller population sizes, and fewer recaptures. Both species live exclusively under rocks and are strict thermoconformers who do not actively thermoregulate their body temperatures by basking, as other high Andean lizards do. The two species have reverse sexual dimorphism with P. unsaacae having larger females and P. sucullcu having larger males. The species are highly philopatric with average movement of less than 7 m in a lifetime. Both appear to be relatively long‐lived with an individual P. unsaacae living longer than 2 years 8 months. At both sites, populations age structures had few juveniles and we detected a declining population of P. unsaacae in Urubamba. This project lays the groundwork for more in‐depth studies of the ecology of both species and their high‐elevation habitats.
Pre‐emptive host‐specificity testing of Trissolcus japonicus (Ashmead) (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae) reveals high parasitism levels against the endemic New Zealand alpine shield bug in laboratory no‐choice tests
Authors: Saunders Thomas E , Avila Gonzalo A , Holwell Gregory I 
Published: March 2021

AbstractBrown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), Halyomorpha halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), is a serious horticultural pest causing considerable damage to local production and international supply chains as it spreads around the world. The samurai wasp, Trissolcus japonicus (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae), is well recognised as the most promising classical biological control against BMSB. The wasp has been conditionally approved for release in New Zealand in the event the stink bug establishes here. Previous host range testing showed that all available non‐target New Zealand pentatomids except a single exotic species were accepted for oviposition and that the parasitoid was capable of parasitising the eggs of two native pentatomids at proportions similar to BMSB. Only one New Zealand species of pentatomid, the endemic alpine shield bug Hypsithocus hudsonae, was not previously tested owing to the difficulty of collecting it from the field. Here we report the results of no‐choice oviposition tests between H. hudsonae and T. japonicus, conducted in containment, to complement previous physiological host range testing of this parasitoid in New Zealand. Parasitoids emerged from 14 out of 15 egg masses, and in total, from 78 out of 83 eggs (94%). The mean sex ratio was 89% female, and no males emerged from six egg masses. H. hudsonae is confirmed as a physiological host for T. japonicus, and this finding is discussed in relation to the strengths and limitations of physiological host range studies.
Puerarin improved growth performance and postmortem meat quality by regulating lipid metabolism of cattle under hot environment
Authors: Peng Tao , Shang Hanle , Yang Mingrui , Li Yanjiao , Luo Junrong , Qu Mingren , Zhang Xinyu , Song Xiaozhen 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThis study aims to evaluate the effect of puerarin on performance, meat quality, and serum indexes of beef cattle under hot environment. Thirty‐two bulls were divided into four groups and fed diet supplemented with puerarin at 0, 200, 400, or 800 mg/kg. Results showed that heat stress was employed for 54 out of 60 days, 400 mg/kg group declined serum cortisol (COR) contents, all treatments increased the contents of total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, and total superoxide dismutase activity; in addition, glutathione peroxidase activity of 200 mg/kg group were enhanced, only 800 mg/kg group enhanced immunoglobulin (IgA, IgM, and IgG) and low density lipoprotein cholesterol contents compared with the control (p < .05). Moreover, 400‐mg/kg puerarin increased serum growth hormone levels compared with 200 mg/kg group but declined COR concentrations compared with 200 mg/kg and 800 mg/kg groups (p < .05). More importantly, average daily gain and daily matter intake, and intramuscular fat contents of 400 mg/kg group were enhanced, but the shear force of beef in 400 mg/kg and 800 mg/kg groups were declined compared with the control (p < .05). These findings indicated that supplemental with puerarin enhanced immune and antioxidant, and 400 mg/kg of puerarin improved performance and meat quality by normalizing levels of stress hormones and increasing intramuscular fat deposition of beef cattle under hot environment.
Investigating the prescribing trajectory and geographical drug utilisation patterns of gabapentinoids in primary care in England: An ecological study
Authors: Gu Xinchun , Chen Teng‐Chou , Su Ting‐Li , Steinke Douglas , Chen Li‐Chia 
Published: March 2021

AimsThis study aimed to investigate the prescribing trajectory, geographical variation and population factors, including socioeconomic status (SES), related to prescribing gabapentinoids in primary care in England.MethodsThis ecological study applied practice‐level dispensing data and statistics from the UK National Health Service Digital and Office for National Statistics from 2013 to 2019. The prescribing of gabapentinoids (in defined daily doses [DDDs]/1000 people) was measured annually and quarterly. General practices were categorised according to the quarterly prescribing in a group‐based trajectory model. The one‐year prescribing in 2018/19 was associated with practice‐level covariates in a mixed‐effects multilevel regression, adjusted for the cluster‐effects of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and mapped geographically.ResultsThe annual national prescription rate increased by 70% from 2800 to 4773 DDDs/1000 people in the time period 2013/14 to 2018/19. General practices were stratified into six trajectory groups. Practices with the highest level and the greatest increase in prescribing (n = 789; 9.8%) are mainly located in the north of England and along the east and south coastline. Socioeconomic status, demographic characteristics and relevant disease conditions were significantly associated with the prescribing. For every decrease in the Index of Multiple Deprivation decile (becoming less affluent), prescribing of gabapentinoids increased significantly by 203 (95% CI: 183–222) DDDs/1000 registrants.ConclusionsGabapentinoid prescribing trajectories varied across geographical regions and are associated with socioeconomic status, CCG locality (geography) and other population characteristics. These factors should be considered in future studies investigating the determinants of gabapentinoid prescribing and the risk of harms associated with gabapentinoids.