bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Is it reasonable to account for population structure in genome-wide association studies?
Authors: Kim Bongsong 
Published: May 2019

AbstractPopulation structure is widely perceived as a noise factor that undermines the quality of association between an SNP variable and a phenotypic variable in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). The linear model for GWAS generally accounts for population-structure variables to obtain the adjusted phenotype which has less noise. Its result is known to amplify the contrast between significant SNPs and insignificant SNPs in a resultant Manhattan plot. In fact, however, conventional GWAS practice often implements the linear model in an unusual way in that the population-structure variables are incorporated into the linear model in the form of continuous variables rather than factor variables. If the coefficients for population-structure variables change across all SNPs, then each SNP variable will be regressed against a differently adjusted phenotypic variable, making the GWAS process unreliable. Focusing on this concern, this study investigated whether accounting for population-structure variables in the linear model for GWAS can assure the adjusted phenotypes to be consistent across all SNPs. The result showed that the adjusted phenotypes resulting across all SNPs were not consistent, which is alarming considering conventional GWAS practice that accounts for population structure.
Is motorcycle tourism ready to rev up in Pennsylvania? An exploratory study of suppliers’ business attitudes of motorcycle tourism
Authors: Quadri-Felitti Donna , Sykes Diane , Chen Feier (Faye) 
Published: May 2019

Purpose
Motorcycle tourism, as an emerging segment of travelers, has steadily increased in the USA and UK. While previous literature reveals that the attributes of both the journey and the destination are motivations for motorcycle tourists, the extent to which supply-side stakeholders are aware of those motivators is not clear. This study aims to explore the perceived value of motorcycle tourism between differing tourism suppliers in the US state of Pennsylvania and investigates whether they exhibit sufficient agreement to satisfy the cooperation and collaboration identified as necessary in stakeholder theory.

Design/methodology/approach
For this exploratory study, an electronic survey captured data from different tourism suppliers (N = 123) in the US state of Pennsylvania. A series of analysis of variance and equality of means tests assessed differences and agreements between types of suppliers perceptions of the value of motorcycle tourism and issues associated with successful development of the niche segment.

Findings
Results reveal alignment among tourism suppliers, as well as between identified motorcyclists’ motivations. While negative perceptions about riders within popular culture appear to continue among some tourism operators, the economic value of the segment is growing in its appeal among the respondents.

Research limitations/implications
The unique characteristics of Pennsylvania’s substantial rural areas and the sample being drawn from tourism organizations suggest generalizing the results with caution.

Practical implications
Practitioners can capture more of these tourists by highlighting amenities that attract motorcyclists, collaborating together on events and welcoming messages for motorcyclists, as well as educating their communities and policymakers about their interest in the segment’s economic value.

Social implications
Overall the study’s findings suggest that while a cultural stereotype of the “outlaw” motorcyclist remains, this negative image may be waning among tourism operators. Additionally, these results indicate a possible consistency among the state’s tourism supply-side stakeholders desire to host this segment because of potential positive benefits of these tourists.

Originality/value
There is scant academic research on this visible and growing tourism niche. There is none that these authors found that examined the tourism suppliers’ sentiments regarding the segment’s contribution to tourism, nor explored stakeholder theory relative to tourism suppliers and this niche segment.
Conference report: second UNWTO/UNESCO world conference on tourism and culture: fostering sustainable development
Authors: Almuhrzi Hamed Mohammed , Al-Azri Hamed Ibrahim 
Published: May 2019

Purpose
The purpose of this conference report is to provide an overview of the Second UNWTO/UNESCO World Conference on Tourism and Culture: Fostering Sustainable Development.

Design/methodology/approach
This is a conference report that provides an overview of the Second UNWTO/UNESCO World Conference on Tourism and Culture: Fostering Sustainable Development. Based on the authors’ involvement in setting the scene for the conference and their attendance, they follow a thematic content analysis procedure to extract and synthesize the most important issues and concerns being discussed during the discussions and commentaries of the conference.

Findings
The report presents an overview of the conference, the main outcomes of its sessions and the main reoccurring themes during the conference’s sessions.

Originality/value
This is the first conference report on the Second UNWTO/UNESCO World Conference on Tourism and Culture: Fostering Sustainable Development.
Clinical pathway efficiency for elective joint replacement surgeries: a case study
Authors: Laberge Maude , Côté André , Ruiz Angel 
Published: May 2019

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to define a clinical pathway for total joint replacement (TJR) surgery, estimate the effect of delays between steps of the pathway on wait time for surgery and to identify factors contributing to more efficient operations and challenges to their implementation.

Design/methodology/approach
This is a case study with a mixed methods approach. The authors conducted interviews with hospital staff. Data collected in the interviews and through on-site observation were analyzed to map the TJR process and identify the steps of the care pathway. The authors extracted and analyzed data (time stamps) from 60 hospital patient records for each step in the pathway and ran a regression on the duration of the whole trajectory.

Findings
There were wide variations in the delays observed between the seven steps identified. The delay between Step 1 and Step 2 was the only significant variable in predicting the total wait time to surgery. In one hospital, one delay explained 50 percent of the variation. There was misalignment between findings from the qualitative data in terms of strategies implemented to increase efficiency of the clinical pathway to the quantitative data on delays between the steps.

Research limitations/implications
The study identified the clinical pathway from the consultation with an orthopaedic surgeon to the surgery. However, it did not go beyond the surgery. Future research could investigate the relationship between specific processes and delays between steps of the process and patient outcomes, including length of stay, mobilization and functionality in activities of daily living, as well as potential complications from surgery, readmission and the services required after the patient was discharged.

Practical implications
Wait times can be addressed by implementing strategies at the health system level or at the organizational level. The authors found and discuss areas where there could be efficiency gains for health care organizations.

Social implications
Stakeholders in care processes are diverse and they each have their preferences in how they practice (in the case of providers) and how they perceive and wish to respond adequately to patients’ needs in contexts that have different norms and approaches. The approach in this study enables a better understanding of the processes, the organizational culture and how these may affect each other.

Originality/value
Our mixed methods enabled a process mapping and the identification of factors that significantly affected the efficiency of the TJR surgery process. It combines methods from process engineering with health services and management research. To some extent, this study demonstrates that although managers can define and enforce processes, organizational culture and practices are harder to influence.
Team composition and labor allocation in audit teams: a descriptive note
Authors: Che Limei , Svanström Tobias 
Published: May 2019

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe, illustrate and provide a deeper understanding of team composition and labor allocation in audit teams by quantifying the exact value of resources at different levels of the audit production. Audit teams have been considered as a black box in audit research. Therefore, this paper reports descriptive statistics on (levels and proportions of) hours and costs allocated to auditor ranks (and the number and value, i.e. billing rates, of auditors for different ranks and the entire team) to shed new light on audit teams.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a proprietary data set containing disaggregated information on hours, costs and billing rates for each team member in each of 908 audit engagements. The data are provided by a Swedish Big 4 audit firm. The study uses a purely descriptive approach and categorizes auditors into seven ranks. As size and the publicly listed status are crucial determinants of audit production, the paper splits engagements in public and private companies and reports statistics for size quartiles of both public and private clients.FindingsThe paper provides descriptive statistics for (1) client size, (2) audit team members, (3) audit hours, (4) audit costs, (5) proportion of audit hours, (6) proportion of audit costs, (7) billing rates and (8) variation of billing rates. Results show that compared to private clients, the audit firm allocates higher effort from auditors in higher ranks and lower effort from auditors in lower ranks to public clients. Another finding is that allocation varies with client size for private clients, but less so for public clients.Originality/valueIn an area with sparse literature, this descriptive study serves as a first step to improve our understanding and guide future research. It provides concrete support for previously known theory.
Setting Climate Action as the Priority for the Common Agricultural Policy: A Simulation Experiment
Authors: Himics Mihaly , Fellmann Thomas , Barreiro‐Hurle Jesus 
Published: May 2019

AbstractWe quantitatively assess the impacts of re‐allocating budgetary resources within Pillar 1 of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) from direct income support to a direct greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction subsidy for EU farmers. The analysis is motivated by the discussion on the future CAP, with calls for both an increased ambition on climate action from the agricultural sector and for a more incentive‐based delivery system of direct payments under strict budgetary restrictions. By conducting a simulation experiment with an agricultural partial equilibrium model (CAPRI), we are able to factor in farmers’ supply and technology‐adjusting responses to the policy change and to estimate the potential uptake of the GHG‐reduction subsidy in EU regions. We find that a budget‐neutral re‐allocation of financial resources towards subsidised emission savings can reduce EU agricultural non‐CO2 emissions by 21% by 2030, compared to a business‐as‐usual baseline. Two‐thirds of the emission savings are due to changes in production levels and composition, implying that a significant part of the achieved GHG reduction is offset globally by emission leakage. At the aggregated level, the emission‐saving subsidy and increased producer prices compensate farmers for the foregone direct income support, but differences in regional impacts indicate accelerated structural change and heterogeneous income effects in the farm population. We conclude that the assumed regional budget‐neutrality condition introduces inefficiencies in the incentive system, and the full potential of the EU farming sector for GHG emissions reduction is not reached, leaving ample room for the design of more efficient agricultural policies for climate action.
Toward Explaining Nitrogen and Phosphorus Trends in Chesapeake Bay Tributaries, 1992–2012
Authors: Ator Scott W. , García Ana Maria , Schwarz Gregory E. , Blomquist Joel D. , Sekellick Andrew J. 
Published: May 2019

AbstractUnderstanding trends in stream chemistry is critical to watershed management, and often complicated by multiple contaminant sources and landscape conditions changing over varying time scales. We adapted spatially referenced regression (SPARROW) to infer causes of recent nutrient trends in Chesapeake Bay tributaries by relating observed fluxes during 1992, 2002, and 2012 to contemporary inputs and watershed conditions. The annual flow‐normalized nitrogen flux to the bay from its watershed declined by 14% to 127,000 Mg (metric tons) between 1992 and 2012, due primarily (more than 80% of the decline) to reduced point sources. The remainder of the decline was due to reduced atmospheric deposition (13%) and urban nonpoint sources. Agricultural inputs, which contribute most nitrogen to the bay, changed little, although trends in the average nitrogen yield (flux per unit area) from cropland and pasture to streams in some settings suggest possible effects of evolving nutrient applications or other land management practices. Point sources of phosphorus to local streams declined by half between 1992 and 2012, while nonpoint inputs were relatively unchanged. Annual phosphorus delivery to the bay increased by 9% to 9,570 Mg between 1992 and 2012, however, due mainly to reduced retention in the Susquehanna River at Conowingo Reservoir.
Simulating Soil Water Content, Evapotranspiration, and Yield of Variably Irrigated Grain Sorghum Using AquaCrop
Authors: Masasi Blessing , Taghvaeian Saleh , Gowda Prasanna H. , Warren Jason , Marek Gary 
Published: May 2019

AbstractUse of models to simulate crop production has become important in optimizing irrigation management in arid and semiarid regions. However, applicability and performance of these models differ across regions, due to differences in environmental and management factors. The AquaCrop model was used to simulate soil water content (SWC), evapotranspiration (ET), and yield for grain sorghum under different irrigation regimes and dryland conditions at two sites in Central and Southern High Plains. Prediction error (Pe), estimated as the difference between simulated and measured divided by measured, for SWC ranged from −17% to 4% in fully irrigated, −3% to −10% in limited irrigated, and −16% to 25% in dryland treatments. The Pe within ±4%, −5%, and −17% to 24% were attained for seasonal ET under fully irrigated, limited irrigated, and dryland conditions, respectively. Pe values for grain yield were within those previously reported and ranged from −10% to 12%, −12% to 7%, and 9% to 17% for fully irrigated, limited irrigated and dryland conditions, respectively. Overall performance of the AquaCrop model showed it could be used as an effective tool for evaluating the impacts of variable crop and irrigation managements on the production of grain sorghum in the study area. Finally, the application of the model in the study area revealed planting date has a significant impact on sorghum yield and irrigation requirements, but the impact of planting density was negligible. Editor's note: This paper is part of the featured series on Optimizing Ogallala Aquifer Water Use to Sustain Food Systems. See the February 2019 issue for the introduction and background to the series.
The MENA Region's Intersecting Crises: What Next?
Authors: Hiltermann Joost 
Published: May 2019

AbstractConflicts in the Middle East and North Africa have been multiplying and increasingly intersecting. This complicates and delays efforts to resolve them. Yet sooner or later they must come to an end. Once they do, it is fair to ask what comes next. Can the region recover? And if so, what shape will it take? Some patterns are already visible. National identities, which were subsumed by a series of competing sub‐national identities, are rebounding as an essential glue in uncertain times, reinforcing state borders and possibly state structures. And forms of local governance are thriving in some areas where the state has dissolved and its writ disappeared; they constitute important experiments that may prevent a return of fierce authoritarian states. Some obstacles to attempts by societies to reconstitute themselves are also evident. The current conflicts’ intersecting nature is one; the other is unremitting external interventions that do yet greater harm by militarizing solutions to political problems, further polarizing divided polities, and undermining local efforts at renegotiating social contracts. Policy makers should gain a more nuanced understanding of the current crises and shape policies that do no further harm but instead contribute to a more stable future.
Conducting social network analysis with animal telemetry data: Applications and methods using spatsoc
Authors: Robitaille Alec L. , Webber Quinn M. R. , Vander Wal Eric 
Published: May 2019

Abstract

We present spatsoc, an r package for conducting social network analysis with animal telemetry data.

Animal social network analysis is a method for measuring relationships between individuals to describe social structure. Proximity‐based social networks are generated from animal telemetry data by grouping relocations temporally and spatially, using thresholds that are informed by the characteristics of the species and study system.

spatsoc fills a gap in r packages by providing flexible functions, explicitly for animal telemetry data, to generate edge lists and gambit‐of‐the‐group data, perform data‐stream randomization, and generate group by individual matrices.

The implications of spatsoc are that current users of animal telemetry or otherwise georeferenced data for movement or spatial analyses will have access to efficient and intuitive functions to generate social networks.
Understanding farmers’ preference for traits of chickens in rural Ethiopia
Authors: Terfa Zelalem G. , Garikipati S. , Kassie Girma T. , Dessie Tadelle , Christley R.M. 
Published: May 2019

AbstractTraditional poultry production plays an irreplaceable role in the sustenance of livelihoods in rural Ethiopia. Ironically, however, much has been done to replace indigenous poultry breeds with exotic genetic resources regardless of the importance producers and consumers attach to attributes of the resources. This study aims at informing policy to establish effective indigenous poultry breeding and conservation programs. Discrete choice experiment (DCE) was employed to generate data. Designing of the DCE involved identification, definition, and measurement of attributes of adaptive, productive, and sociocultural importance considering the multiple functions of village chickens. Random parameters logit and the generalized multinomial logit (G‐MNL) models were used to estimate taste parameters. Economic values of traits of chickens were estimated using the utility in willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) space approach, based on G‐MNL model formulation. The results show that important traits of chickens to farmers are mothering ability, diseases resistance, and meat and eggs taste. These findings question the appropriateness, at least in the prevailing production system, of the Ethiopian national government's effort to improve productivity in village poultry by targeting specialized egg‐layer improved chickens. The findings also suggest that poultry breeding programs aiming to provide readily acceptable breed technology by farmers need to prioritize traits of adaptive importance, and mothering ability, instead of focusing on egg productivity only. The key implication is that the unique qualities of the indigenous poultry breeds need to be carefully identified and prioritized before resorting to those that proved to be successful in different production systems.
The Jaipur Literature Festival and Its Critics
Authors: Ståhlberg Per 
Published: May 2019

SummaryThe Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) has been held in the Indian city of Jaipur for the past ten years. The event has grown spectacularly and has provided an arena for encounters between literary worlds. It has also become a focus of debate and friction within the sphere of Indian writing. This article is based on fieldwork at the JLF 2017.
Cardiorenal AL amyloidosis: risk stratification and outcomes based upon cardiac and renal biomarkers
Authors: Rezk Tamer , Lachmann Helen J. , Fontana Marianna , Naharro Ana Martinez , Sachchithanantham Sajitha , Mahmood Shameem , Petrie Aviva , Whelan Carol J. , Pinney Jennifer H. , Foard Darren , Lane Thirusha , Youngstein Taryn , Wechalekar Ashutosh D. , Hawkins Philip N. , Gillmore Julian D. 
Published: May 2019

SummarySystemic AL amyloidosis is a cause of type 5 cardiorenal syndrome. Response to treatment is currently reported according to organ‐specific amyloidosis consensus criteria (ACC), which are not validated in cardiorenal AL amyloidosis. Of 1000 patients prospectively enrolled into the UK ALchemy study, 318 (32%) had combined cardiac and renal amyloidotic organ dysfunction at diagnosis, among whom 199 (63%) died; median survival by Kaplan–Meier analysis was 18·5 months. Fifty (16%) patients required renal replacement therapy (RRT). At diagnosis, independent predictors of death and dialysis were N‐terminal pro‐B‐type natriuretic peptide (NT‐proBNP) >8500 ng/l (hazard ratio [HR] 3·30, P < 0·001; HR 3·00, P < 0·001), and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) < 30 ml/min/1·73 m2 (HR 1·89, P = 0·011; HR 6·37, P < 0·001). At 6 months, an increase in NT‐proBNP of >30% and a reduction in eGFR of ≥25% were independent predictors of death (HR 2·17, P = 0·009) and dialysis (HR 3·07, P = 0·002), respectively. At 12 months, an increase in NT‐proBNP >30% was highly predictive of death (HR 3·67, P < 0·001) and dialysis (HR 2·85, P = 0·010), whereas ACC renal response was predictive of neither. Cardiorenal AL amyloidosis is associated with high early mortality. Outcomes are dictated by NT‐proBNP and eGFR at diagnosis rather than proteinuria, and thereafter predominantly by changes in NT‐proBNP concentration.