bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Pectin methylesterase selectively softens the onion epidermal wall yet reduces acid-induced creep
Authors: Wang Xuan , Wilson Liza , Cosgrove Daniel J. 
Published: September 2019

AbstractDe-esterification of homogalacturonan (HG) is thought to stiffen pectin gels and primary cell walls by increasing calcium crosslinking between HG chains. Contrary to this idea, recent studies found that HG de-esterification correlated with reduced stiffness of living tissues, measured by surface indentation. The physical basis of such apparent wall softening is unclear, but possibly involves complex biological responses to HG modification. To assess the direct physical consequences of HG de-esterification on wall mechanics without such complications, we treated isolated onion (Allium cepa) epidermal walls with pectin methylesterase (PME) and assessed wall biomechanics with indentation and tensile tests. In nanoindentation assays, PME action softened the wall (reduced the indentation modulus). In tensile force/extension assays, PME increased plasticity, but not elasticity. These softening effects are attributed, at least in part, to increased electrostatic repulsion and swelling of the wall after PME treatment. Despite softening and swelling upon HG de-esterification, PME treatment alone failed to induce cell wall creep. Instead, acid-induced creep, mediated by endogenous α expansin, was reduced. We conclude that HG de-esterification physically softens the onion wall, yet reduces expansin-mediated wall extensibility.HighlightAfter enzymatic de-esterification without added calcium, the onion epidermal wall swells and becomes softer, as assessed by nanoindentation and tensile plasticity tests, yet exhibits reduced expansin-mediated creep.
Profitability vs Poverty alleviation: has banking logic influences Islamic microfinance institutions?
Authors: Tamanni Luqyan , Haji Besar Mohd Hairul Azrin 
Published: September 2019

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to shed some lights on the process of mission drifting or abandoning poverty objective by Islamic microfinance institutions (IMFs). The paper investigates whether the extensive use of banking logic changes IMFs, from focusing on both development and financial objectives to only considering sustainability as their primary mission.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts mixed methods by analyzing 7,200 microfinance data from Microfinance Exchange Market and reviewing annual reports and websites of 25 IMFs to examine their vision and mission statements and other related information.FindingsThe finding shows Islamic microfinance has not changed, despite increasing adoption of financial or banking performance measures. However, size and age of the institutions may affect the outcome in the future. The authors find that smaller microfinance institutions maintain genuine objective to serve the poor, as the grow larger they would be more inclined toward sustainability objectives.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is limited on the sample size as data on Islamic microfinance globally is limited. However, the paper looked at the global data rather than local data to compensate for this limitation. Future study would be further taking the study through qualitative methods to support the study.Originality/valueThis paper aims to shed some lights on the process of mission drifting or abandoning poverty objective by IMFIs. The paper investigates how has the extensive use of financing logic has changed IMFIs from focusing on both development and financial objectives to only considering sustainability as their primary mission. Arun and Hulme (2009) argued that the interaction of multiple logic within microfinance institutions, i.e. financial vs social, could pose some serious management dilemmas within microfinance institutions. Further, commercialization puts pressure on the field staffs to achieve financial targets and often neglect their poverty outreach mission to the poor. The well-known crisis in Andhra Pradesh, India where clients of microfinance institutions committed suicide after being shamed by field officers who tried to collect payments of loans (Mader, 2013; Taylor, 2011), provides a powerful case of the impact of financialization to microfinance clients.
Board characteristics and earnings management in Sri Lanka
Authors: Rajeevan Shanmugavel , Ajward Roshan 
Published: September 2019

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the association between designated corporate governance attributes and the degree of earnings management in selected quoted companies in Sri Lanka.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 70 listed companies in Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) were selected based on the highest market capitalisation for the period covering from 2015 to 2017 and representing beverage, food and tobacco, diversified, hotel and travel, manufacturing, oil palms and health care sectors, which accounted for 59.9 per cent of the total market capitalisation of CSE.FindingsThis study found a positive relationship between CEO-Chair duality and earnings management.Practical implicationsThe insights may also provide investors, economic analysts and regulators with early caution indicators of potential problems in a corporation regarding corporate governance failures and aid stakeholders in assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of the board and corporate governance structure and earnings management methods.Originality/valueThis study extends the extant research on board characteristics and real earnings management by adopting prominent research design and modernised data. This study offers evidence on how selected audit and board committee’s characteristics influence real earnings management practices.
Organization’s core competencies and front-end decision-making in the apparel innovation
Authors: Seram Niromi , Nanayakkara Julian , Lanarolle Gamini 
Published: September 2019

Purpose
Organization’s core competencies are acknowledged as most valuable assets and skills which contribute to enhance the ability of innovation, the competitive advantage and commercial success of the business. Although several researchers have studied the effects of core competencies on the success of an organization, no enough work has been carried out to investigate the effect of core competencies onfront-end decision-making. Apparel-specific studies in the area of core competencies relating to front-end decision-making are rarely found. Therefore, this paper aims to determine the impact of organizational core competencies on front-end decision-making in the apparel innovation.

Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual framework was developed focusing four groups of competencies; technological/ technical, customer, network/ partnership and financial competences and hypothesis were derived. Sixty participants in different companies across Sri Lanka were randomly selected based on their involvement in the front-end of the apparel innovation for questionnaire survey. The data were analyzed using the SPSS version 20 statistical software package. Spearman's rho correlation and Linear regression analysis were used to quantify the impact of the competencies on front-end decisions.

Findings
The factors of network competencies are found to be the most influentialon effective front-end decision-making in apparel innovation in Sri Lanka. These results strongly suggests strengthening companies’ ability to interact with partners who possess raw materials, machineries and technology know-how to facilitate efficient front-end decision-making. The next most influential are the factors of technological competencies. It highlights the importance of strengthening the companies’ own technical/ technological competencies to facilitate effective front- end decision-making in apparel innovation.

Originality/value
The findings of this research are of main interest to extend the current understanding on how different factors of organization’s core competencies influence on effective front-end decision-making in apparel innovation. Particularly, apparel domain practitioners will be motivated in implementing and nurturing these important/ and most influential competencies within their firms to facilitate front-end decision-making to achieve better results consistently.
Soil functional responses to drought under range‐expanding and native plant communities
Authors: Manrubia Marta , van der Putten Wim H. , Weser Carolin , ten Hooven Freddy C. , Martens Henk , Brinkman E. Pernilla , Geisen Stefan , Ramirez Kelly S. , Veen G. F. (Ciska) 
Published: September 2019

Abstract

Current climate warming enables plant species and soil organisms to expand their range to higher latitudes and altitudes. At the same time, climate change increases the incidence of extreme weather events such as drought. While it is expected that plants and soil organisms originating from the south are better able to cope with drought, little is known about the consequences of their range shifts on soil functioning under drought events.

Here, we test how range‐expanding plant species and soil communities may influence soil functioning under drought. We performed a full‐factorial outdoor mesocosm experiment with plant communities of range expanders or related natives, with soil inocula from the novel or the original range, with or without summer drought. We measured litter decomposition, carbon mineralization and enzyme activities, substrate‐induced respiration and the relative abundance of soil saprophytic fungi immediately after drought and at 6 and 12 weeks after rewetting.

Drought decreased all soil functions regardless of plant and soil origin except one; soil respiration was less reduced in soils of range‐expanding plant communities, suggesting stronger resistance to drought. After rewetting, soil functioning responses depended on plant and soil origin. Soils of native plant communities with a history of drought had more litter mass loss and higher relative abundance of saprophytic fungi than soils without drought and soils of range expanders. Functions of soil from range expanders recovered in a more conservative manner than soils of natives, as litter mass loss did not exceed the control rates. At the end of the experiment, after rewetting, most soil functions in mesocosms with drought history did not differ anymore from the control.

We conclude that functional consequences of range‐expanding plants and soil biota may interact with effects of drought and that these effects are most prominent during the first weeks after rewetting of the soil.

A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
Contrasting drivers of community‐level trait variation for vascular plants, lichens and bryophytes across an elevational gradient
Authors: Roos Ruben E. , van Zuijlen Kristel , Birkemoe Tone , Klanderud Kari , Lang Simone I. , Bokhorst Stef , Wardle David A. , Asplund Johan 
Published: September 2019

Abstract

Across environmental gradients, community‐level functional traits of plants can change due to species turnover, intraspecific variation and their covariation. Studies on vascular plants suggest that species turnover is the main driver of trait variation across gradients, although intraspecific variation can also be important. However, there is limited knowledge about whether this holds for non‐vascular primary producers such as lichens and bryophytes. We hypothesized that intraspecific variation is more important for non‐vascular than for vascular primary producers because they lack specialized structures to maintain homeostasis and should therefore be more responsive to extrinsic factors.

To assess the relative importance of species turnover versus intraspecific variation for vascular plants, lichens and bryophytes, we estimated species abundance and measured chemical (tissue nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) content, N:P ratio and pH) and non‐chemical (specific leaf or thallus area, dry matter content and water holding capacity) functional traits along an elevational gradient in alpine southern Norway. We calculated community‐weighted mean traits and quantified the relative contribution of species turnover, intraspecific variation and their covariation to total trait variation across the gradient.

We found mixed support for our hypothesis: the contribution of intraspecific variation to total trait variation for N and N:P was higher in lichens than in vascular plants and bryophytes, but in general the contribution of intraspecific variation differed among functional traits and producer groups. Nutrient variables (N, P and N:P) were significantly impacted by intraspecific variation for vascular plants and lichens but not for bryophytes. Non‐chemical traits and pH were mainly driven by species turnover effects in all primary producer groups.

Our results highlight that while nearly all studies on primary producer trait variation across environments have focused on vascular plants, trait variation of other largely neglected but ecologically important producer groups, such as lichens and bryophytes, may show very different responses to the same environmental factors. In order to fully understand how future environmental changes impact on community‐ and ecosystem‐level processes, traits of primary producers other than vascular plants—and their within‐species variation—need to be considered in systems where these groups are abundant.

A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
The evolution of the wage gap between rural migrants and the urban labour force in Chinese cities
Authors: Zhang Dandan 
Published: September 2019

An increasing earning gap between rural migrants and urban residents has recently aroused public concern about rising urban poverty asscociated with migration of rural people into Chinese cities. To address the issue, this paper explores the possibility of wage assimilation for rural migrants towards their urban counterparts and its determinants between 1999 and 2009, by applying an economic assimilation model to analyse a repeated cross‐sectional data for seven Chinese cites at the individual level. The results show that rural migrants' earnings do not assimilate to their urban counterparts, although the situation improves gradually over time. This implies that institutional and policy barriers impede the assimilation process of rural migrants, which supports the call for further labour market reforms.
Prioritization of differentially expressed genes through integrating public expression data
Authors: Xu W. , Li S. , Zhang Z. , Hu J. , Zhao Y. 
Published: September 2019

SummaryDifferentially expressed gene (DEG) analysis is a major approach for interpreting phenotype differences and produces a large number of candidate genes. Given that it is burdensome to validate too many genes through benchwork, an urgent need exists for DEG prioritization. Here, a novel method is proposed for prioritizing bona fide DEGs by constructing the normal range of gene expression through integrating public expression data. Prioritization was performed by ranking the differences in cumulative probability for genes in case and control groups. DEGs from a study on pig muscle tissue were used to evaluate the prioritization accuracy. The results showed that the method reached an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 96.42% and can effectively shorten the list of candidate genes from a differential expression experiment to find novel causal genes. Our method can be easily extended to other tissues or species to promote functional research in broad applications.
Plastination of larger and massive specimens—With Silicone
Authors: Nader Paul B. , Henry Robert W. , Sui Hong Jin 
Published: September 2019

AbstractIn 1977, plastination was unveiled, which replaced tissue fluid with a curable polymer. Today preservation via plastination of various animal and plant tissues, organs, and whole bodies is an extremely useful technique to display such and help educate vast arrays of both allied science students and the lay public across the planet. The diversity of applications of plastination techniques seems to be without limits. In fact, the only real limitation to plastination is one's imagination! The size of plastinates during the early years of plastination was comparatively small and dictated primarily by the size of the available plastination kettle/chamber, 35 L Heidelberg plastination kettle (49 cm H × 34.5 cm diam.). In the 1990s larger chambers were designed and slowly became available:150–210 cm (long) × 65–80 cm (wide) and 83–92 cm (high). Today a few large vacuum chambers are in service which will accommodate whole bodies of man and domestic or exotic animals. Today, at least two gigantic chambers are available to impregnate massive specimens. These are 3.5 m × 2 m × 1.5 m (Dalian) and 4 m × 3 m × 2.2 m (Guben). Also, the need for larger quantities of acetone and impregnation mix, not to mention the great increase in specimen preparation time, makes this a major investment. The “cold temperature process” is used to impregnate these massive creations. The room temperature technique could be used. The same four plastination steps are necessary for larger and massive specimens. Besides their tremendous size, the slippery silicone polymer is a reckoning force.
Cutaneous manifestation of IgG4‐related disease mimicking dermatitis artefacta
Authors: Ashoka Menon Vivek , Tong Elissa , Slape Dana Rose-Marie Louise , Phan Tai Anh , Chan Renee CF 
Published: September 2019

AbstractDermatitis artefacta is a self‐inflicted cutaneous disease presenting as sharply delineated ulcers, usually in accessible sites such as the head and neck. IgG4‐related disease (IgG4‐RD) is a recently recognised immune‐mediated condition causing a fibroinflammatory process, resulting in the formation of tumefactive lesions in various organs, rarely presenting primarily in the skin. We report a case of cutaneous IgG4‐RD clinically presenting as dermatitis artefacta.
Unmet treatment needs in patients with chronic pelvic pain in a New Zealand gynaecology service
Authors: Joseph Karen , Mills Jessica 
Published: September 2019

BackgroundChronic pelvic pain, which carries a high burden of disability and distress, is a common presentation to gynaecology clinics. While there is increasing acknowledgment of the complexity of chronic pelvic pain, and the benefits of providing management from a multidisciplinary team within a sociopsychobiomedical framework, the mainstay of management in gynaecology outpatient clinics remains within a single clinician biomedical‐focused model. This model of care is only sufficient for women who present with minimal psychosocial complexity to their pain.AimsTo estimate the proportion of women attending the gynaecology outpatient clinic at a public women's hospital in New Zealand referred with chronic pelvic pain who have needs unmet by the current biomedical model of care. Informed by international research, pain catastrophising was used as a psychosocial correlate of this complexity.MethodsAn audit was undertaken of 100 consecutive pre‐appointment questionnaires of women, referred to a gynaecology outpatient clinic for review of pelvic pain of duration over six months, with no red flags in their referral history.ResultsAn unexpectedly high level of catastrophic thoughts about pain was reported. Seventy‐seven percent of the women scored in the high or severe range, with 55% endorsing clinically significant scores for helpless catastrophising.ConclusionsThe Pain Catastrophising Scores in this cohort were found to be higher than those in similar groups in the published international literature and also than in patients referred to the local tertiary level pain management centre, further reinforcing the need for investment into appropriate services for women with chronic pelvic pain.
Novel findings in immunopathophysiology of chronic rhinosinusitis and their role in a model of precision medicine
Authors: Xu Xinni , Ong Yew Kwang , Wang De Yun 
Published: September 2019

AbstractOur understanding of the pathophysiology of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is continuously evolving. The traditional description of CRS in terms of two phenotypes based on the presence or absence of nasal polyps belies the underlying intricate immunopathophysiological processes responsible for this condition. CRS is being increasingly recognized as a disease spectrum encompassing a range of inflammatory states in the sinonasal cavity, with non‐type 2 inflammatory disease on one end, type 2 inflammatory, eosinophil‐heavy disease on the other and an overlap of both in different proportions in between. Abundance in research on the immune mechanisms of CRS has revealed various new endotypes that hold promise as biomarkers for the development of targeted therapies in severe, uncontrolled CRS. The introduction of precision medicine to manage this chronic, complex condition is a step forward in providing individualized care for all patients with CRS. In this review, the latest research on the pathophysiology of CRS with a focus on potential novel biomarkers and treatment options over the last 2 years are summarized and integrated into a suggested model of precision medicine in CRS.
Induction of specific cell‐mediated immune responses and protection in BALB/c mice by vaccination with outer membrane vesicles from a Brucella melitensis human isolate
Authors: Bagheri Nejad Ramin , Yahyaraeyat Ramak , Es‐haghi Ali , Nayeri Fasaei Bahar , Zahraei Salehi Taghi 
Published: September 2019

Brucellosis is a worldwide bacterial zoonosis caused by Brucella spp. No approved vaccine is available for human use against the disease. In this study, outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) from a Brucella melitensis biovar 1 human isolate obtained in Iran were used to immunize BALB/c mice (n = 12) by 2 intramuscular injections with a 2‐week interval. Another group of 12 mice was used as non‐vaccinated controls. Two weeks after the last vaccination, six mice of each group were sacrificed, and proliferation and interferon gamma (IFNγ) production responses of their splenocytes were evaluated following in vitro stimulation with killed Brucella cells. The other mice were challenged with the virulent B. melitensis isolate. Two weeks later, mice were killed and spleens were cultured to determine the number of the challenge strain. The results showed proliferative response and IFNγ production of splenocytes from vaccinated mice (stimulation index: 2.18 ± 0.57, and 1519.35 ± 10.70 pg/mL, respectively) were significantly higher than those of control mice (stimulation index: 1.02 ± 0.02, and 210.01 ± 17.58 pg/mL, respectively). Numbers of the challenge strain in spleens of vaccinated mice were also significantly less than those in the controls with 1.6 units of protection. Our study revealed vaccination with OMVs of the B. melitensis isolate could induce specific immune responses and protection against infection in the mouse model suggesting their potential application for active immunization against brucellosis.