bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Swarm intelligence approaches in supply chain management: potentials, challenges and future research directions
Authors: Soni Gunjan , Jain Vipul , Chan Felix T.S. , Niu Ben , Prakash Surya 
Published: December 2018

Purpose
It is worth mentioning that in supply chain management (SCM), managerial decisions are often based on optimization of resources. Till the early 2000s, supply chain optimization problems were being addressed by conventional programming approaches such as Linear Programming, Mixed-Integer Linear Programming and Branch-and-Bound methods. However, the solution convergence in such approaches was slow. But with the advent of Swarm Intelligence (SI)-based algorithms like particle swarm optimization and ant colony optimization, a significant improvement in solution of these problems has been observed. The purpose of this paper is to present and analyze the application of SI algorithms in SCM. The analysis will eventually lead to development of a generalized SI implementation framework for optimization problems in SCM.

Design/methodology/approach
A structured state-of-the-art literature review is presented, which explores the applications of SI algorithms in SCM. It reviews 56 articles published in peer-reviewed journals since 1999 and uses several classification schemes which are critical in designing and solving a supply chain optimization problem using SI algorithms.

Findings
The paper revels growth of swarm-based algorithms and seems to be dominant among all nature-inspired algorithms. The SI algorithms have been used extensively in most of the realms of supply chain network design because of the flexibility in their design and rapid convergence. Large size problems, difficult to manage using exact algorithms could be efficiently handled using SI algorithms. A generalized framework for SI implementation in SCM is proposed which is beneficial to industry practitioners and researchers.

Originality/value
The paper proposes a generic formulation of optimization problems in distribution network design, vehicle routing, resource allocation, inventory management and supplier management areas of SCM which could be solved using SI algorithms. This review also provides a generic framework for SI implementation in supply chain network design and identifies promising emerging issues for further study in this area.
The disruptive impact of future advanced ICTs on maritime transport: a systematic review
Authors: Bălan Carmen 
Published: December 2018

Purpose
This systematic literature review focuses on the following future advanced information and communication technologies (ICTs) applied in the maritime transport of cargo: Internet of Things (IoT), big data, cloud computing and autonomous ships/vessels (including unmanned ships/vessels). The review question is: “RQ: In what context and by means of what mechanism does the implementation of future advanced ICTs have disruptive impact on maritime transport?”.

Design/methodology/approach
The paper complies with the methodological requirements of systematic reviews. The information analysis and synthesis are based on the CIMO logic, referring to the context (C), intervention (I), mechanism (M) and outcome (O) of the implementation of future advanced ICTs in maritime transport.

Findings
The review identifies the contextual factors and components of the mechanism that lead to the disruptive impact of different types of future advanced ICT interventions on maritime transport.

Research limitations/implications
The review approaches only the most important future advanced ICTs that will disrupt maritime transport.

Practical implications
The maritime transport organizations should consider: intended outcome as intervention trigger; increased efficiency and responsiveness; benchmarking.

Originality/value
For the first time, the CIMO logic is applied in a systematic review focused on future advanced ICTs in maritime transport. The CIMO-DMT model is elaborated as a basis for further research. Ten directions of study are recommended in a future research agenda.
Design, simulation, fabrication and testing of ultrasonic gas flowmeter transducer (sensor)
Authors: Mousavi Seyed Foad , Hashemabadi Seyed Hassan , Azizi Moghaddam Hossein 
Published: December 2018

Purpose
Invasive transit-time ultrasonic flow measurement involves the use of ultrasonic transducers, which sense the flowing fluid and are the most important parts of an ultrasonic flowmeter. In this study, two ultrasonic transducers were designed, numerically simulated and fabricated to be used in an ultrasonic gas flowmeter.

Design/methodology/approach
PZT-5H piezoceramic elements with specific dimensions were designed and used as beating heart inside the transducers. Different methods, including impedance-frequency analysis, optical emission spectroscopy and performance tests in pressurized chambers were used to evaluate the piezoelectric elements, ultrasonic transducer housings and the fabricated transducers, respectively. In addition, finite element method results showed its ability for design stages of ultrasonic transducer.

Findings
Experimental results for transit time difference (TTD) and the normalized received voltage were compared with simulation results at the same conditions. There was a quite good agreement between the two method results. Extensive simulation results showed that under the considered range of environmental conditions, the change of acoustic path length has the most impact on TTD, with respect to temperature and pressure. A change of 1 mm in acoustic path length leads to 0.74 per cent change in TTD, approximately. In addition, for normalized received voltage, 1 bar change in pressure has the most impact and its value is as high as 3.76 per cent.

Practical implications
This method is possibly used in ultrasonic gas flowmeter fabrication.

Originality/value
In this work, design, fabrication, experimental tests and numerical simulation of ultrasonic transducers are presented.
Sustaining ignorance: the uncertainties of groundwater and its extraction in the Salar de Atacama, northern Chile
Authors: Babidge Sally 
Published: December 2018

AbstractThe extraction of groundwater and the regulation of its use in many parts of the world have been found to present a particular kind of problem. A contest involving mining companies, an ‘impacted’ community, and the state arising from groundwater and its extraction in the Salar de Atacama, northern Chile, provides a stark example. What marks the case are the many uncertainties about underground water and the quantities extracted. This article argues that uncertainty characterizes conditions of ‘late industrialism’ and that corporate practice that sustains ignorance is a form of powerful agency that in turn maintains the conditions for potentially harmful extractive activity. Critically engaging with the proposition that water may act in the relational process of unknowing contributes to the analysis of how corporate practice may sustain ignorance. This also suggests that alternative political responses to uncertainty are possible.
Scripting development through formalization: accounting for the diffusion of village savings and loans associations in Tanzania
Authors: Green Maia 
Published: December 2018

AbstractVillage savings and loan associations (VSLAs) are a form of self‐organized savings association which has been successfully promoted by development agencies across the Global South. This article examines the increase in VSLAs in Tanzania through an investigation of the practices through which they are organized. Self‐organized savings associations use extreme formalization to enact the social and financial discipline which enables members to count on one another. Anthropological theories of ritual as disciplinary practice shed light on the organizational practices of savings associations and their expansion. Such associations adopt the organizational properties of ritual to generate and sustain autonomous local institutions. Ritualization has added value for systems of financial ordering as a ‘framing’ device through which the financial order of saving can be delineated. Whereas sociological theorizations of institutional diffusion perceive ritualization as empty copying, ethnographically informed anthropological analysis demonstrates the productivity of formalization where detachment from ordinary relations is a sought attribute of organization
On secularity: Marxism, reality, and the Messiah in Brazil
Authors: Lebner Ashley 
Published: December 2018

AbstractOn 17 April 1996, police opened fire on more than 1,500 unarmed protesters of the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) in Southeast Pará, Brazil, killing nineteen and wounding seventy‐nine. Two years later, Osias, one of the wounded survivors, awoke to find that he had written a messianic prophecy, which he decided to share because it contained ‘a lot of reality’. This article explores what conditioned Osias's expectation that his text could provoke public reflections on reality. As such, it engages with a question unexplored by current scholarship: why the will to publicity might be inextricable from secularity, which I define as the condition of living with secularization, understood in turn not as the rise of unbelief, but as the expansion of a domain of thought and practice distinguished from religion. The ethnography ultimately inspires a rereading of Asad's Formations of the secular, interrogates assumptions about the determining reality of ‘secularism’ and ‘politics’, and makes more visible how anthropological writing is shaped by secularity. With a postscript on the October 2018 presidential elections.
Statins and risk of cataracts: A systematic review and meta‐analysis of observational studies
Authors: Alves Carlos , Mendes Diogo , Batel Marques Francisco 
Published: December 2018

SummaryIntroductionTwo previous meta‐analyses evaluated the risk of cataracts associated with statins, but did not include relevant studies suggesting a cataractogenic effect.AimsThe aim of this systematic review and meta‐analysis of observational studies is to evaluate such association considering the latest published evidence.MethodsA literature search was conducted to identify observational, comparative studies evaluating the risk of developing cataracts in patients treated with statins. A meta‐analysis was performed to estimate odds ratios (ORs). Results were stratified according to the following studies’ subgroups: design, methodological quality, method of diagnosis of cataract, patients’ age, and median follow‐up. Meta‐regressions evaluated the influence of the following risk factors: smoking, hypertension, corticosteroids, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular disease.ResultsTwenty‐one studies were included. Treatment with statins was associated with an increased risk of cataracts [OR: 1.11 (95% CI: 1.02‐1.21); P = 0.017; I2 = 97.5%]. This risk remained statistically significant among case‐controls, good methodological quality studies, studies with length of follow‐up ≥5 years and those which outcome was cataract surgery. Between‐studies heterogeneity was high among all risk estimates. Meta‐regressions identified an inverse relationship between the risk of cataracts and the proportion of diabetic patients in the studies.ConclusionsThe results point out an increased risk of cataract development with statins. However, since the magnitude of the effect is low and between‐studies heterogeneity is high, the extent in which these results have impact on the benefit/risk ratio of statins is difficult to ascertain due to the uncertainty of the findings.
Finding smoking hot‐spots: a cross‐sectional survey of smoking patterns by housing tenure in England
Authors: Jackson Sarah E. , Smith Cheryll , Cheeseman Hazel , West Robert , Brown Jamie 
Published: December 2018

AbstractAimsTo examine smoking prevalence, motivation and attempts to stop smoking, markers of cigarette addiction and success in quit attempts of people living in social housing in England compared with other housing tenures.Design and settingA large cross‐sectional survey of a representative sample of the English population conducted between January 2015 and October 2017.ParticipantsA total of 57 522 adults (aged ≥ 16 years).MeasurementsMain outcomes were smoking status, number of cigarettes per day, time to first cigarette, exposure to smoking by others, motivation to stop smoking, past‐year quit attempts and use of cessation support. Covariates were age, sex, social grade, region and survey year.FindingsAdults in social housing had twice the odds of being smokers than those living in other housing types [odds ratio (OR) = 2.09, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.98–2.22, P < 0.001]. Smokers in social housing consumed more cigarettes daily (adjusted mean difference = 1.09 cigarettes, 95% CI = 0.72–1.46, P < 0.001) and were more likely to smoke within 30 minutes of waking (OR = 1.63, 95% CI = 1.48–1.79, P < 0.001) than smokers living in other housing types. Prevalence of high motivation to stop smoking was similar across housing types (OR = 1.04, 95% CI = 0.91–1.19, P = 0.553). The prevalence of quit attempts and use of cessation support within the past year were greater in social compared with other housing (OR = 1.14, 95% CI = 1.03–1.26, P = 0.011; OR = 1.30, 95% CI = 1.09–1.54, P = 0.003), but success in quitting was much lower (OR = 0.57, 95% CI = 0.45–0.72, P < 0.001).ConclusionsIn England, living in social housing is a major independent risk factor for smoking. These easily identifiable hot‐spots consist of smokers who are at least as motivated to stop as other smokers, but find it more difficult.
Unilateral pigmentary retinopathy: a retrospective case series
Authors: Errera Marie‐Hélène , Robson Anthony G. , Wong Tracey , Hykin Philip G. , Pal Bishwanath , Sagoo Mandeep S. , Pavesio Carlos E. , Moore Anthony T. , Webster Andrew R. , MacLaren Robert E. , Holder Graham E. 
Published: December 2018

AbstractPurposeTo review the clinical characteristics and address the aetiology in a group of patients presenting with unilateral retinal pigmentary changes, best described as unilateral pigmentary retinopathy (UPR).MethodsThe cohort of 42 patients was identified retrospectively from the Moorfields Eye Hospital electrophysiology database. All had undergone full‐field [electroretinography (ERG)] and pattern electroretinography (PERG), with 13 additionally having multifocal ERG (mfERG). The clinical findings, fundus photographs and fundus autofluorescence (AF) images were reviewed.ResultsAll index eyes showed ERG evidence of generalized photoreceptor dysfunction with most showing a similar degree of rod and cone involvement. However, although the fellow eyes all had a normal fundus examination, there were bilateral but asymmetrical ERG abnormalities in eight patients and a further four patients had PERG evidence of macular dysfunction in the fellow eye. A relevant medical history or the diagnosis of an ophthalmologic entity that might be related to the unilateral fundus changes was ascertained in 15 cases (~36%) including acute zonal occult outer retinopathy, trauma, systemic malignancy or autoimmune disease, retinal vasculitis, presumed pregnancy‐related choroidal ischaemia and meningitis. Two patients had a family history of retinitis pigmentosa (RP; 4.8%).ConclusionThe underlying aetiology in most cases of UPR cannot accurately be identified, but an heritable cause is unlikely. Aspects of the history clearly suggest an acquired disorder in some patients. Twenty‐five patients (60%) with nongenetic UPR did not adhere to the pattern of rod greater than cone dysfunction that occurs in RP (rod–cone dystrophy), and the pattern of rod > cone dysfunction seen in true RP is thus not a feature of most patients with UPR.
Novel mutations in mevalonate kinase cause disseminated superficial actinic porokeratosis
Authors: Zhu T. , Tian D. , Zhang L. , Xu X. , Xia K. , Hu Z. , Xiong Z. , Tan J. 
Published: December 2018

Summary

Background
Disseminated superficial actinic porokeratosis (DSAP) is a rare autosomal dominant disease. In our previous research, we found that a linkage region of DSAP in a large family is located at 12q23·2-q24·1. Subsequently, the mevalonate kinase gene (MVK) was shown to be pathogenic in DSAP.

Objectives
To elucidate the mechanism by which MVK mutations lead to keratinocyte apoptosis and DSAP, and to report a new missense mutation, c.566 C&gt;T (p.A189V), in MVK in a Chinese DSAP pedigree.

Methods
The half-life of wild-type (WT) MVK protein and mutants was assessed using cycloheximide treatment of cells. Dimerization of MVK was analysed by coimmunoprecipitation and glutathione S transferase pull-down assay. MVK kinase activity, production of cell cholesterol, mitochondrial complex activity and apoptosis were detected, using the corresponding commercial kits, in cells overexpressing MVK WT and mutants.

Results
Mechanically, we demonstrated that both the pathogenic p.A189V mutant and a sporadic mutation p.H312R (c.935A&gt;G), which we reported previously, have rapid degradation, decreased kinase activity and reduced production of cell cholesterol. Also, we found the p.H312R mutation confers on the MVK protein an inability to dimerize. Further, we demonstrated that the mutants are impaired in mitochondrial function and lead to increased apoptosis.

Conclusions
Our results provide an important basis for elucidating the mechanism by which MVK missense mutations contribute to DSAP.
How Infants' Arousal Influences Their Visual Search
Authors: Kleberg Johan Lundin , del Bianco Teresa , Falck‐Ytter Terje 
Published: December 2018

The influence of arousal on visual attention was examined in 6.5‐month‐old infants (N = 42) in the context of a visual search task. Phasic increases in arousal were induced with brief sounds and measured with pupil dilation. Evidence was found for an inverted U‐shaped relation between pupil dilation amplitude and visual orienting, with highest likelihood of a target fixation at intermediate levels of arousal. Effects were similar for facial stimuli and simple objects. Together, these results contribute to our understanding of the relation between arousal and attention in infancy. The study also demonstrates that infants have a bias to orient to human eyes, even when presented in isolation.
Neuromyelitis optica spectrum and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody‐related disseminated encephalomyelitis
Authors: Misu Tatsuro , Fujihara Kazuo 
Published: December 2018

AbstractNeuromyelitis optica (NMO) is characterized by severe optic neuritis and transverse myelitis. The relationship of NMO to multiple sclerosis (MS) has long been debated. With the discovery of an NMO‐specific autoantibody to aquaporin 4 (AQP4), the clinical, radiological, and laboratory findings have clarified the differences between NMO and MS, and NMO spectrum disorders (NMOSD) have been proposed as the unifying term for the entire clinical entity including brain syndromes. Pathological studies in NMO showed loss of immunoreactivity to AQP4 and glial fibrillary acidic protein, but a relative preservation of myelin basic protein, especially at the lesions with perivascular deposition of immunoglobulins and complements. AQP4 antibody‐positive NMOSD is now considered an autoimmune astrocytopathic disease. In addition, the definite diagnosis should be made initially from the therapeutic viewpoint, because there have been several AQP4 antibody‐positive NMOSD cases exacerbated by disease‐modifying drugs for MS. In recent years, the antibody against myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) has been studied for its association with other types of acute demyelinating diseases, such as acute or multiphasic disseminated encephalomyelitis, optic neuritis, NMOSD and brainstem or cerebral cortical encephalomyelitis. Recent brain biopsied MOG antibody‐positive case reports have suggested the dominance of humoral immunity, but it is not well elucidated whether the cellular immune responses against MOG could develop perivenous inflammatory demyelination like classical acute disseminated encephalomyelitis pathology. In the present review, we focus on two distinct diseases, aquaporin 4 antibody‐related NMOSD and MOG antibody‐related diseases, both of which were recently differentiated from MS by means of the disease‐specific autoantibodies and the distinct pathophysiologies.
LOTUS as a novel biomarker of multiple sclerosis
Authors: Takahashi Keita , Tanaka Fumiaki 
Published: December 2018

AbstractMultiple sclerosis (MS) is considered to be an autoimmune demyelinating disorder, but recent studies showed that axonal degeneration is also an important pathological feature of MS. Indeed, Nogo receptor‐1 and its ligands have been identified as key molecules for axonal degeneration in various neurological disorders, including MS. Lateral olfactory tract usher substance, an endogenous Nogo receptor‐1 antagonist, promotes axonal growth and regeneration by blocking Nogo receptor‐1 signaling. We found that the lateral olfactory tract usher substance level in cerebrospinal fluid was inversely correlated with MS disease activity. Here, we review the association between the key molecules in axonal degeneration/regeneration and MS, and discuss the potential application of lateral olfactory tract usher substance as a biomarker and therapeutic target of MS.
Prevention and reversal of Type 2 diabetes: highlights from a symposium at the 2019 Diabetes UK Annual Professional Conference
Authors: Taylor R. , Valabhji J. , Aveyard P. , Paul D. 
Published: December 2018

AbstractAimThis symposium covers the gamut of Type 2 diabetes prevention, reversing established Type 2 diabetes, population‐level delivery of weight loss programmes and personal insights into achieving and retaining substantial weight loss.ResultsThe NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme was launched in 2016 and rates of referral and attendance have both exceeded expectations. By March 2018, mean weight loss for completers (those attending more than 60% of sessions) was 3.2 kg reflecting considerable health benefits. Established Type 2 diabetes is now known to be a reversible condition in the early years, and the underlying mechanism is the removal of the excess fat from within liver and pancreas in these susceptible individuals. The Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial has shown that around half of a primary care population of people with Type 2 diabetes of less than 6 years’ duration can be returned to non‐diabetic blood glucose control which lasts at least 12 months. This raises the question of population‐level intervention to achieve weight loss. The success of some mass weight loss programmes requires to be recognized. Reframing mass provision of weight loss support should be a vital part of our clinical strategy to prevent and treat Type 2 diabetes. However, the current obesogenic environment is a reality in which individuals must live. A personal account of achieving substantial and maintaining substantial weight loss provides an invaluable insight into practical problems encountered. All health professionals dealing with weight control should assimilate and reflect upon this understanding.ConclusionsEffective prevention and long term reversal of Type 2 diabetes is feasible. The impact upon the individual must be considered during delivery of advice and support.