bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Diversity-focused HR practices and perceived firm performance: mediating role of procedural justice
Authors: Kundu Subhash C. , Mor Archana , Bansal Jahanvi , Kumar Sandeep 
Published: February 2019

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between diversity management (i.e. diversity-focused human resource (HR) practices related to recruitment and selection, training and development, performance appraisal and compensation) and perceived firm performance, and the mediating effect of procedural justice.Design/methodology/approachPrimary data based on 400 respondents of 162 organizations operating in India were analysed using statistical tools such as factor analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple regression analysis.FindingsMultiple regression analysis indicated that diversity-focused HR practices had a positive association with perceived firm performance. Further, it was found that procedural justice played a partially mediating in the relationship between diversity-focused HR practices and perceived firm performance.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper relied on self-report surveys for data collection, and there laid a possibility of common method variance in the result findings. Hence, future studies should collect data from multiple sources by using multiple methods (e.g. interviews, surveys, peer reports, etc.).Practical implicationsThe first implication highlights that senior management’s support is a prerequisite to execute justice-based diversity management processes, which in turn aid in harvesting the true potentials of diversity. Second, organizations should adopt an egalitarian approach while formulating and implementing diversity management initiatives to accentuate the fair and just perceptibility of procedures among employees.Originality/valueThis study sheds new light on the effects of diversity-focused HR practices on firm performance (perceived) in Indian context.
Performance improvement: when do employees learn from others’ success stories?
Authors: Quinn Ryan W. , Cumberland Denise M. , Kerrick Sharon A. 
Published: February 2019

PurposeEmployees often improve at work by learning from others who have been successful. They learn by hearing their stories. However, the number of stories, task type and context all affect learning. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the number of stories they hear, the type of task they are learning to perform and their performance in the task to date all affect performance improvement.Design/methodology/approachThe authors examine how task complexity and recent performance relative to others influence the relationship between the number of success stories a person reads and their subsequent performance. The authors used a sample of order processing employees from a label manufacturing company to test our hypotheses.FindingsThe authors find that in complex tasks, subsequent performance is highest when people read a small number of stories, and lowest when people read no stories or too many stories. In simple tasks, the authors find that when people have average recent performance, more stories leads to lower performance, but when recent performance is high or low, more stories increases subsequent performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors move beyond research that shows that people do not learn as much from success as they could and that success primarily promotes reinforcement to examine contingencies that enhance or detract from learning from success stories. This adds nuance to existing theory.Practical implicationsThis study suggests access to others’ success stories is an alternative that can provide employees with ideas for how to improve their own performance. But care and consideration must be taken to limit the number of success stories based on the complexity of the task.Originality/valueThere is little research on either the vicarious learning of simple tasks in organizations or on how employees learn from others’ success stories. This matters because vicarious learning can enable employees to avoid missteps and create opportunities that would likely not happen if they only learn from their own experiences.
The impact of switching costs and brand communities on new product adoption: served-market tyranny or friendship with benefits
Authors: Thompson Scott A. , Loveland James M. , Loveland Katherine E. 
Published: February 2019

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the competing effects of brand community participation, which should enhance loyalty to both the brand and to already-owned products, against switching costs, which should make consumers sensitive about the financial costs associated with new products.Design/methodology/approachUsing the participation and weekly adoption data from 7,411 members in two brand communities and one product category forum over a six-month period, switching costs were computed for each member using 10 years of product release and pricing data.FindingsConsistent with prior research, switching costs had a significant effect on reducing product adoption. Brand community participation also had a significant effect on overcoming switching costs. However, these main effects were qualified by an interaction, such that the most active participants were more likely to buy the new product when switching costs were higher.Originality/valueMost importantly, these findings provide unique insights into financial switching costs and demonstrate ways in which brand community participation provides a way to mitigate switching costs for consumers who would most be affected by them.
The PhD system under pressure: an examiner’s viewpoint
Authors: Alexander David E. , Davis Ian R. 
Published: February 2019

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review the issues and challenges associated with examining PhD theses in the modern, rapidly changing academic world. The PhD degree has been described as the “pinnacle of academic qualifications”, but it is under threat in terms of the quality of supervision and the outcome of examinations. By bringing the issues into the open and discussing them, more can be done to safeguard the health of the modern doctorate.Design/methodology/approachThis paper reviews the mainstream academic literature on doctoral degrees from the point of view of the origin and development of the contemporary PhD. Then it offers some reflections on supervision, examination, standards of judgement, benchmarking of results and different routes to the doctorate. The pressures upon the modern university are related to issues encountered in examining doctoral theses.FindingsIn modern neo-liberal environments, the PhD degree is under pressure in terms of its quality and rigour. This paper offers a simple conceptual model of the challenges involved in ensuring the quality of PhD examinations and their outcomes. Priorities for the various stakeholders are suggested to ensure that PhD research continues to set the “gold standard” for excellence.Practical implicationsRecognising and confronting the problems with the modern PhD and how it is examined will help guarantee the quality of the degree. A more open debate on the pressures under which supervision and examinations are conducted will help establish rules or guidelines for conduct.Originality/valueThere are remarkably few evaluations of the PhD examination process, which in recent years has become increasingly problematic. The authors adopt a comprehensive approach to the issues and relate them to the societal context in which universities are developing.
CSR and legitimacy in higher education accreditation programs, an isomorphic approach of Lebanese business schools
Authors: Chedrawi Charbel , Howayeck Pierrette , Tarhini Abbas 
Published: February 2019

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of the accreditation path toward legitimacy in business schools from an isomorphic and a social responsibility perspective.

Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative method is used to analyze the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation process in three Lebanese business schools aiming at revealing a new role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in this process.

Findings
Accreditation in business schools is a “temporary isomorphic legitimacy tool” enhanced by CSR in a continuum that may lead to sustain legitimacy in higher education once accreditation is attained.

Research limitations/implications
This research has its limitations around the external validity of the qualitative methods. In fact, the authors’ results depend on the context of the three studied business schools, and the generalization of the results was never the authors’ primary objective. Further research must be done to build and elaborate on the authors’ findings, either within the authors’ sample or within other business schools in Lebanon.

Practical implications
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can play a major role in guaranteeing and sustaining legitimacy in the phase after accreditation. May be this was the philosophy behind the proposition of the AACSB of the new standard regarding CSR in 2013 highlighting the importance of ethics, CSR, and sustainability education in business schools.

Originality/value
Accreditation in business schools is a “temporary isomorphic legitimacy tool” enhanced by CSR in a continuum that may lead to sustain legitimacy in higher education once accreditation is attained.
Lean in higher education
Authors: Kazancoglu Yigit , Ozkan-Ozen Yesim Deniz 
Published: February 2019

PurposeThis research aims to investigate and define the eight wastes of lean philosophy in higher education institutions (HEIs) by proposing a multi-stage model.Design/methodology/approachThe authors have used a specific multi-criteria decision-making method, fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory, to investigate the cause–effect relationships and importance order between criteria for wastes in HEIs. In total, 22 criteria were categorized under eight wastes of lean. The study was implemented in a business school with the participation of faculty members from different departments.FindingsThe results showed that the most important wastes in the business school selected were repeated tasks, unnecessary bureaucracy, errors because of misunderstanding/communication problems, excessive number of academic units and creation of an excessive amount of information. Another important result was that all the sub-wastes of talent were in the causes group, while motion and transportation wastes were in the effect group.Practical implicationsA road map to guide lean transformation for HEIs is proposed with a multi-stage model and potential areas for improvement in HEIs were presented.Originality/valueThis study proposes a multi-stage structure by applying multi-criteria decision-making to HEIs, focussing on wastes from a lean perspective.
Experimenting with creativity, immigration, language, power, and technology: a research agencement
Authors: Bangou Francis 
Published: February 2019

PurposeThis paper is the actualization of a researcher’s attempt to engage, both conceptually and methodologically, with the dynamic and ever-creative connections and forces associated with the schooling experiences of immigrant students. The research reported that in this paper comprises part of a three-year research project funded by Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and focuses on the interrelationships between immigration, technology and pop culture in a Canadian French-language secondary school. The paper aims to discuss this issue.Design/methodology/approachDrawing from new materialist thought, the experience of one immigrant student is put to work with(in) the Deleuzo–Guattarian concepts of agencement, machines, language and power (pouvoir,puissance) with(in) the rhizoanalysis of a short video clip provided by the student.FindingsWith(in) the rhizoanalysis, the publication machine emerges as a force that could potentially affect the expression of one’s becoming citizen, and hacking emerges as a force that could contribute to the destabilization of the publication machine’s power (pouvoir).Originality/valueThe originality of this paper is that readers are also invited to contribute to this experimentation in contact with the real.
Is telomere length a molecular marker of individual quality? Insights from a long‐lived bird
Authors: Angelier Frédéric , Weimerskirch Henri , Barbraud Christophe , Chastel Olivier 
Published: February 2019

Abstract

In wild vertebrates, some individuals survive and reproduce better than others and this has led to the concept of individual quality. Despite its importance when studying ecological processes and life‐history trade‐offs, measuring individual quality is complex because individuals must be followed during a large part of their life.

Recently, telomere biology has been successfully brought into ecology and telomere length has been suggested to be a promising molecular tool to evaluate individual quality in wild vertebrates (“the telomere–individual quality hypothesis”).

In this study, we tested this hypothesis in a long‐lived species, the black‐browed albatross (Thalassarche melanophrys) by simultaneously measuring telomere length and several potential complementary phenotypic proxies of individual quality in a single year. In addition, we followed the return rate and the reproductive performance of these same albatrosses for a decade.

We found that long telomeres were associated with several markers of high individual quality (foraging behaviour, body size and stress hormone levels). Furthermore, we found that a single measure of telomere length could predict future offspring productivity, for at least several years following telomere measurement (better productivity being associated with longer telomeres).

Altogether, these results support the “telomere–individual quality hypothesis” and suggest that telomere length can be useful to estimate individual quality in long‐lived seabirds.

A plain language summary is available for this article.
Curvelet reconstruction of non‐uniformly sampled seismic data using the linearized Bregman method
Authors: Zhang Hua , Diao Su , Chen Wei , Huang Guangnan , Li Hongxing , Bai Min 
Published: February 2019

ABSTRACTSeismic data reconstruction, as a preconditioning process, is critical to the performance of subsequent data and imaging processing tasks. Often, seismic data are sparsely and non‐uniformly sampled due to limitations of economic costs and field conditions. However, most reconstruction processing algorithms are designed for the ideal case of uniformly sampled data. In this paper, we propose the non‐equispaced fast discrete curvelet transform‐based three‐dimensional reconstruction method that can handle and interpolate non‐uniformly sampled data effectively along two spatial coordinates. In the procedure, the three‐dimensional seismic data sets are organized in a sequence of two‐dimensional time slices along the source–receiver domain. By introducing the two‐dimensional non‐equispaced fast Fourier transform in the conventional fast discrete curvelet transform, we formulate an L1 sparsity regularized problem to invert for the uniformly sampled curvelet coefficients from the non‐uniformly sampled data. In order to improve the inversion algorithm efficiency, we employ the linearized Bregman method to solve the L1‐norm minimization problem. Once the uniform curvelet coefficients are obtained, uniformly sampled three‐dimensional seismic data can be reconstructed via the conventional inverse curvelet transform. The reconstructed results using both synthetic and real data demonstrate that the proposed method can reconstruct not only non‐uniformly sampled and aliased data with missing traces, but also the subset of observed data on a non‐uniform grid to a specified uniform grid along two spatial coordinates. Also, the results show that the simple linearized Bregman method is superior to the complex spectral projected gradient for L1 norm method in terms of reconstruction accuracy.
Depth‐to‐water mediates bryophyte response to harvesting in boreal forests
Authors: Bartels Samuel F. , James Ryan S. , Caners Richard T. , Macdonald S. Ellen 
Published: February 2019

Abstract

Site moisture is an important component of the forest landscape for maintaining biodiversity, including forest‐floor bryophytes. However, little is known about its role in shaping understorey responses to harvesting.

We investigated the influence of site wetness, determined using a remotely sensed, topographic depth‐to‐water (DTW) index, on responses of bryophyte cover, richness, diversity and composition to variable retention harvesting (comparing: 2% [clear‐cut], 20% and 50% dispersed green tree retention and uncut controls [100% retention]) in three boreal forest cover‐types (broadleaf, mixed and conifer forests) in western Canada. The DTW index provides an approximation of DTW at or below the soil surface and was derived from wet‐areas mapping based on discrete Airborne Laser Scanning data acquired over an experimentally harvested landscape located in north‐western Alberta, Canada.

The effectiveness of leaving retention (vs. clear‐cutting) for conserving bryophyte communities depended on site wetness, as indicated by DTW, with the specifics varying among forest types. In broadleaf forests, bryophyte cover and richness were generally low and not much affected by harvesting but drier sites had higher richness and a few more unique species. In mixed and conifer forests, leaving retention (vs. clear‐cutting) on wetter (vs. drier) sites was more effective for conserving bryophyte cover, wetter sites had higher total species richness and more species were exclusive to wetter sites.

Synthesis and applications. Site wetness, as indicated using the remotely sensed topographic site wetness index “depth‐to‐water” mediates bryophyte responses to variable‐retention harvests. Specifically, our results suggested that in conifer and mixed forests it would be more beneficial to target wetter sites for retention patches or dispersed retention whereas in broadleaf forests there might be a slight advantage to targeting drier sites. Our study demonstrates that this tool could be used to inform management decisions around leaving dispersed or patch retention.
Furan and Methylfurans in Foods: An Update on Occurrence, Mitigation, and Risk Assessment
Authors: Kettlitz Beate , Scholz Gabriele , Theurillat Viviane , Cselovszky Jörg , Buck Neil R. , O’ Hagan Sue , Mavromichali Eva , Ahrens Katja , Kraehenbuehl Karin , Scozzi Gabriella , Weck Markus , Vinci Claudia , Sobieraj Marta , Stadler Richard H. 
Published: February 2019

AbstractThe acceptance of many foods is related to traditional cooking practices, which create taste and texture and are important to digestibility, preservation, and the reduction of foodborne illnesses. A wide range of compounds are formed during the cooking of foods, a number of these have been shown to lead to adverse effects in classical toxicological models and are known as food processing contaminants (FPC). It is essential that the presence and effects of such compounds alone and in combination within the diet are understood such that proportionate risk management measures can be developed, while taking a holistic view across the whole value chain. Furan and alkylfurans (principally 2‐ and 3‐methylfuran) are highly volatile FPC, which are formed in a wide range of foods at low amounts. The focus of research to‐date has been on those foods, which have been identified to be most consequential in terms of being sources of exposure, namely jarred and canned foods for infants and young children (meals and drinks) and coffee (roast and ground, soluble). This report presents (i) new industry data on the occurrence of furan and methylfurans in selected food categories following previous coffee studies, (ii) the most salient parameters that impact furan formation, and (iii) aspects of importance for the risk assessment.
CD49a regulates the function of human decidual natural killer cells
Authors: Li Huirong , Hou Yuanyuan , Zhang Shitong , Zhou Yuanqin , Wang Dezheng , Tao Siyue , Ni Fang 
Published: February 2019

ProblemThe function of CD49a on human decidual natural killer (dNK) cells is unknown.Method of studyThe expression of CD49a on dNK cells from human patients with recurrent spontaneous abortions or age‐matched healthy controls was analyzed by flow cytometry. DNK cells were treated with CD49a neutralizing antibody and analyzed for function (cytokines production and cytotoxic activity). Long non‐coding RNA (lncRNA) microarray analysis was used to identify a potential regulator of CD49a.ResultsDNK cells from human patients who underwent recurrent spontaneous abortions had lower levels of CD49a and increased perforin, granzyme B, and IFN‐r expression, when compared to dNK cells from age‐matched healthy controls. Perforin, granzyme B, and IFN‐r expression levels in dNK cells were upregulated, while the migration and adhesion of dNK cells were downregulated by CD49a‐neutralizing antibody. By the 51Cr release assay, the killing activity of dNK cells also increased with CD49a neutralizing antibody. Further, lnc‐49a, a newly identified lncRNA, was shown to be a positive regulator of CD49a in primary human NK cells.ConclusionCD49a is involved in the regulation of dNK cells functions, including cytotoxic activity, migration, and adhesion. Further, lnc‐49a is a positive regulator of CD49a in human primary dNK cells.
External fixation of unstable pelvic fractures: a systematic review and meta‐analysis
Authors: Stewart Rebecca G. , Hammer Niels , Kieser David C. 
Published: February 2019

BackgroundUnstable pelvic fractures are typically caused by high‐impact trauma. Early stabilization is required to prevent further neurological or visceral injury, haemorrhage, reduce pain, infection and long‐term deformity and disability. The aim was to review the optimal external fixation techniques and management for unstable pelvic fractures.MethodsA total of 28 studies were identified from the initial database search. Seventeen studies met our inclusion criteria – eight prospective cohorts, four retrospective cohorts and five in vitro studies. This equated to 539 patients and 38 cadaveric (in vitro) models.ResultsType B and double vertical fractures have less re‐displacement (43.7% and 68.2% <5 mm, respectively) than Type C fractures (55.7% >15 mm) regardless of pin placement. Greater than 50% experience a complication with the most common being pin site infection (36%) and a trend towards increased infection with increasing pins was seen. Most can be managed with antibiotics alone (93%). A minimum time of 6–8 weeks in frame was required for definitive management of all fractures.ConclusionThis review supports the use of supra‐acetabular pins over iliac crest pins to decrease re‐displacement, the least number of pins for the shortest amount of time and the largest size pin where possible. Type B fractures will generally have a better outcome than Type C fractures. Definitive management in a frame should be at least 8 weeks. Further studies directly comparing iliac crest and supra‐acetabular pin placement are recommended.