bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Cis-regulatory code for predicting plant cell-type specific high salinity response
Authors: Uygun Sahra , Azodi Christina B. , Shiu Shin-Han 
Published: November 2018

AbstractMulticellular organisms have diverse cell types with distinct roles in development and responses to the environment. At the transcriptional level, the differences in environmental response between cell types are due to differences in regulatory programs. In plants, although cell-type environmental responses have been examined, details on how these responses are regulated remain spotty. Here, we identify a set of putative cis-regulatory elements (pCREs) enriched in the promoters of genes responsive to high salinity stress in six Arabidopsis thaliana root cell types. Using machine learning with pCREs as predictors, we establish cis-regulatory codes, i.e. models predicting whether a gene is responsive to high salinity for each cell type. These pCRE-based models outperform models utilizing in vitro binding data of 758 A. thaliana transcription factors. Surprisingly, organ pCREs identified based on whole root high salinity response can predict cell-type responses as well as pCREs derived from cell-type data -because organ and cell-type pCREs predict complementary subsets of high salinity response genes. Our findings not only advance our understanding of the regulatory mechanisms of plant spatial transcriptional response through cis-regulatory codes, but also suggest broad applicability of the approach to any species, particularly those with little or no trans regulatory data.
A dynamic neural network model for predicting risk of Zika in real-time
Authors: Akhtar Mahmood , Kraemer Moritz U.G. , Gardner Lauren M. 
Published: November 2018

AbstractBackgroundIn 2015 the Zika virus spread from Brazil throughout the Americas, posing an unprecedented challenge to the public health community. During the epidemic, international public health officials lacked reliable predictions of the outbreak’s expected geographic scale and prevalence of cases, and were therefore unable to plan and allocate surveillance resources in a timely and effective manner.MethodsIn this work we present a dynamic neural network model to predict the geographic spread of outbreaks in real-time. The modeling framework is flexible in three main dimensions i) selection of the chosen risk indicator, i.e., case counts or incidence rate, ii) risk classification scheme, which defines the high risk group based on a relative or absolute threshold, and iii) prediction forecast window (one up to 12 weeks). The proposed model can be applied dynamically throughout the course of an outbreak to identify the regions expected to be at greatest risk in the future.ResultsThe model is applied to the recent Zika epidemic in the Americas at a weekly temporal resolution and country spatial resolution, using epidemiological data, passenger air travel volumes, vector habitat suitability, socioeconomic and population data for all affected countries and territories in the Americas. The model performance is quantitatively evaluated based on the predictive accuracy of the model. We show that the model can accurately predict the geographic expansion of Zika in the Americas with the overall average accuracy remaining above 85% even for prediction windows of up to 12 weeks.ConclusionsSensitivity analysis illustrated the model performance to be robust across a range of features. Critically, the model performed consistently well at various stages throughout the course of the outbreak, indicating its potential value at any time during an epidemic. The predictive capability was superior for shorter forecast windows, and geographically isolated locations that are predominantly connected via air travel. The highly flexible nature of the proposed modeling framework enables policy makers to develop and plan vector control programs and case surveillance strategies which can be tailored to a range of objectives and resource constraints.
National Population and Cost Implications of Treatment with Icosapentyl Ethyl in the United States: An Assessment Based on the REDUCE-IT trial
Authors: Khera Rohan , Valero-Elizondo Javier , Saxena Anshul , Virani Salim S , Krumholz Harlan M , Nasir Khurram 
Published: November 2018

ABSTRACTIcosapent ethyl, an omega-3-fatty acid, was associated with improved cardiovascular outcomes in individuals with elevated levels of serum triglycerides and at a high-risk of adverse cardiovascular events in the recently completed REDUCE-IT trial. We applied the eligibility criteria of the REDUCE-IT trial to a nationally representative sample of individuals in the United States captured in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for a 6-year period (2009-2014) and estimated the number of individuals nationally that would be potentially eligible for treatment with icosapentyl ethyl. We found that nearly 3 million US adults would potentially be candidates for this therapy. Further, based on the list cost of the drug, if all eligible individuals are treated, the additional cost to the US healthcare system will be almost $9 billion a year.
PRMT1-mediated methylation of the Large Drosha Complex regulates microRNA biogenesis
Authors: Spadotto Valeria , Giambruno Roberto , Massignani Enrico , Mihailovich Marija , Patuzzo Francesca , Ghini Francesco , Nicassio Francesco , Bonaldi Tiziana 
Published: November 2018

AbstractMicroRNA (miRNA) biogenesis is a tightly controlled multi-step process operated in the nucleus by the activity of the Large Drosha Complex (LDC). Through high resolution mass spectrometry (MS) analysis we discovered that the LDC is extensively methylated, with 82 distinct methylated sites associated to 16 out of 23 subunits of the LDC. The majority of these modifications occurs on arginine (R)- residues (61), leading to 86 methylation events, while 29 lysine (K)-methylation events occurs on 21 sites of the complex. Interestingly, both depletion and pharmacological inhibition of PRMT1 lead to a widespread alteration of the methylation state of the complex and induce global decrease of miRNA expression, as a consequence of the specific impairment of the pri-to-pre-miRNA processing step. In particular, we show that the reduced methylation of the ILF3 subunit of the complex is linked to its diminished binding to the target pri-miRNAs. Overall, our study uncovers a previously uncharacterized role of R-methylation in the regulation of the LDC activity in mammalian cells, thus affecting global miRNA levels.
Characterization and Variation of the Rhizosphere Fungal Community Structure of Cultivated Tetraploid Cotton
Authors: Qiao Qinghua , Zhang Jingxia , Ma Changle , Wang Furong , Chen Yu , Zhang Chuanyun , Zhang Hui , Zhang Jun 
Published: November 2018

AbstractRhizosphere fungal communities exert important influential forces on plant growth and health. However, information on the dynamics of the rhizosphere fungal community structure of the worldwide economic crop, cotton (Gossypium spp.), is limited. Next-generation sequencing of nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer-1 (ITS1) was used to characterize the rhizosphere fungal communities of worldwide cultivated tetraploid cotton using G. hirsutum cv. TM-1 (upland cotton) and G. barbadense cv. Hai 7124 (island cotton). Plants were grown in field soil (FS) that had been continuously cropped with cotton and nutrient-rich soil (NS) that had not been cropped. Fungal species richness, diversity, and community composition were analyzed and compared among soil resources, cotton genotypes, and developmental stages. We found that the fungal community structure between the rhizosphere and bulk soil of cotton were different and the rhizosphere fungal communities were significantly varied between FS and NS. These results suggest that cotton rhizosphere fungal community structure variation was primarily determined by the interaction of cotton roots with different soil resources. We also found that the community composition of cotton rhizosphere fungi varied significantly during different developmental stages, suggesting that developmental stages were also important factors in the dynamics of rhizosphere fungal communities for the varying dominant fungal genera of the rhizosphere. In addition, we also observed that fungal pathogens were clearly increased at certain developmental stages, suggesting a higher infection rate and a high incidence of corresponding soil-borne disease in each stage. This research illustrates the characteristics of cotton rhizosphere fungal communities and provides important information for understanding the potential influences of rhizosphere fungal communities on cotton growth and health.
Triple bottom line model and food safety in organic food and conventional food in affecting perceived value and purchase intentions
Authors: Hsu Shu Yen , Chang Chiao-Chen , Lin Tyrone T. 
Published: November 2018

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there is a significant difference in consumer’s attitude and purchase intentions toward organic food and conventional food (non-organic food and non-genetically modified) under the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) for environmental protection in the context of global warming and frequent food safety issues.

Design/methodology/approach
To understand the triple bottom line(TBL) affect the consumers’ attitude and purchase intentions of organic food and conventional food from the consumer’s point of view, primary data collected via 363 valid questionnaires tested the conceptual model by structural equation modeling (SEM).

Findings
The results show that CSR has a significant influence on consumers’ perceived value. Moreover, perceived value is an important factor in affecting consumers’ attitude and purchase intentions. And consumers’ attitude toward environmental concern, food safety concern and CSR also have an indirect effect on purchase intentions.

Originality/value
The findings of the study would help corporations not only pursue economic profit but also keep a balance within the environment and the ecosystem, and serve as a reference to corporations to fulfill CSR for the goal of sustainable management.
Pro-poor growth and the realization of common prosperity of socialism with Chinese characteristics
Authors: Conglai Fan , Chaofeng Xie 
Published: November 2018

PurposeAs the essential requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics, common prosperity stands for both the goal of and the approach to economic growth. Shared development is a new stage of the process of common prosperity. From the perspective of economic growth, it requires the low- and middle-income groups to gain more from the growth than high-income groups. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachBased on provincial panel data, the random effect model and the dynamic panel model are used in this paper to analyze the path to achieve pro-poor growth.FindingsThe keys to achieve pro-poor growth are first to promote new urbanization with people at the center, diversify the forms of employment and improve the income structure of the residents, and second to improve the accuracy in designing redistribution policies.Originality/valueAfter the realization of “some get rich first” policy, it is important to swiftly adapt to a new mindset of shared development, which charters a new course to the Marxist common prosperity. There exist few established economic theories or action plans with respect to shared development. Pro-poor growth, however, offers a perspective to achieve both sharing and development.
Efficient numerical treatment of nonlinearities in the advection–diffusion–reaction equations
Authors: Erdogan Utku , Sari Murat , Kocak Huseyin 
Published: November 2018

Purpose
The purpose of this study is to propose a non-classical method to obtain efficient and accurate numerical solutions of the advection–diffusion–reaction equations.

Design/methodology/approach
Unlike conventional numerical methods, this study proposes a numerical scheme using outer Newton iteration applied to a time-dependent PDE. The linearized time dependent PDE is discretized by trapezoidal rule, which is second order in time, and by spline-based finite difference method of fourth order in space.

Findings
Using the proposed technique, even when relatively large time step sizes are used in computations, the efficiency of the proposed procedure is very clear for the numerical examples in comparison with the existing classical methods.

Originality/value
This study, unlike these classical methods, proposes an alternative approach based on linearizing the nonlinear problem at first, and then discretizing it by an appropriate scheme. This technique helps to avoid considering the convergence issues of Newton iteration applied to nonlinear algebraic system containing many unknowns at each time step if an implicit method is used in time discretization. The linearized PDE can be solved by implicit time integrator, which enables the use of large time step size.
Determining the efficacy of consolidating municipal electric utilities in Ontario, Canada
Authors: Walsh Philip R. , Ajibade Olalekan 
Published: November 2018

PurposeThis paper aims to examine empirically if the encouragement by government policy of merger and acquisition activity involving municipal and provincially owned electricity distribution utilities (LDCs) in the Province of Ontario has had positive effects in terms of value creation, operating performance and economies of scale.Design/methodology/approachIt was anticipated that with LDC consolidation, there will be increased operational efficiency and improvement in the cost-effectiveness of the merged electrical utility. Using matched pairs dependent t-testing and Wilcoxon signed-rank testing, the authors compared data for three years before and after the merger or acquisition of 16 municipal utilities (616 total observations) to determine if there were any statistically significant changes (positive or negative) in measures of financial, operational and service efficiency.FindingsThe findings indicate statistically significant increases in debt as a percentage of shareholder equity in post-merger/acquisition utilities and consequently leveraged higher returns on equity. However, there were no statistically significant changes in financial, operational or service efficiency measures (with the exception of decreased efficiency in telephone response).Research limitations/implicationsA total of 16 mergers or acquisitions were reviewed involving 32 of 79 LDCs, with the research implications pointing to a need for existing policy to be reviewed to determine whether a more detailed examination is required by the provincial energy regulator, including a closer examination of managerial motives, before approving mergers between municipal electricity distributors. This research involves only a quantitative approach and further research would examine these transactions using qualitative measures for a deeper examination as to managerial motives.Practical implicationsThe results suggest that the mergers or acquisitions to date have served only to increase shareholder risk without improvement in other financial, operational or service efficiencies, a contradiction to the rationale behind the Province’s merger policy.Social implicationsThe consolidation policy for Ontario LDCs has not resulted in any statistically significant improvement in electricity rates or service for consumers.Originality/valueThis paper is the first examination of the effects of Ontario’s LDC consolidation policy in terms of specific financial, operational and service efficiency measures.
Remodelling the retail store for better sales performance
Authors: Webber Cleber da Costa , Sausen Jorge Oneide , Basso Kenny , Laimer Claudionor Guedes 
Published: November 2018

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the relationship between strategic remodelling of the retail store and the performance of companies in the retail sector.Design/methodology/approachThe method used was a quantitative and descriptive survey of 93 cases from a sample of 329 retail stores from three chains that had remodelled some of their retail stores.FindingsThe results showed that strategic remodelling improved the performance of the stores surveyed, demonstrating the importance of retail store management as a strategic resource that can improve performance and competitiveness. Applying the balanced scorecard (BSC) perspectives, the retail store strategies had a greater influence on the dimension of internal processes than on other dimensions. Specifically, lighting is the redesign strategy that provides the best performance result.Practical implicationsThe findings offer support to managers who are considering modifications to the retail store. Decisions about strategies related to external visual communication, internal layout, internal visual communication, fixtures, painting of the store, lighting, location of the store and visual merchandising can make a difference in the pursuit for better performance across a range of dimensions.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to both the retail strategy and marketing literature by evidencing the link between specific retail remodelling strategies and performance using the BSC dimensions.
Tensile strength of composite ties in business relationships
Authors: Wood John Andy 
Published: November 2018

Purpose
This paper aims to empirically examine the proposed framework that incorporates multiple business relational ties as components in a composite that can provide strength to relationships. Strength is conceptualized as tensile strength or an ability to withstand stress without permanent deformation of the relationship.

Design/methodology/approach
The study uses dyadic survey data collected by mail survey from the organizational buyers and suppliers. Analysis is through moderated multiple regression.

Findings
Results indicate that stressors can disrupt individual components of relationships. However, the overall relationship outcome of behavioral loyalty remains intact with tensile strength coming from other components of the relationship.

Originality/value
This research introduces the concept of tensile strength from the material sciences as relevant to dyadic business relationship strength. The outcomes indicate that looking at multiple components of the business relationship provides greater insight into the tensile strength of business relationships.
Linking business model research and marketing: new network-based approach to business model analysis
Authors: Klimanov Denis , Tretyak Olga 
Published: November 2018

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to establish a connection between the business model (BM) and B2B marketing research by developing a new approach to the BM analysis and improvement, which is based on inter-organizational networks and value chains.

Design/methodology/approach
The methodology is based on mutual enrichment of methods and results of BM and business-to-business marketing studies that are relatively isolated from each other, and on integration of them to the unified structured approach that could be applied to analyze both BM and a set of interfirm relationships of networked market players. This paper is based on extensive literature review in the areas of BM and relationship/industrial marketing. The review is based on most cited and contemporary articles found in the Scopus and EBSCO databases.

Findings
This paper formulates the key BM research directions and visualizes their development over time. It is demonstrated in the paper that currently, there is little involvement of marketing researchers in the study of BM; however, there are multiple touchpoints between these areas of knowledge, which can help in further developing BM studies. On the basis of these findings, a conceptual model and new network-based approach to BM analysis is offered, which allows addressing the complex nature of networked interaction among BM participants. The approach includes stepwise algorithm for BM analysis designed for business practitioners.

Research limitations/implications
The proposed approach can be applied by business practitioners to analyze and improve their BM via managing the interactions of inter-organizational network participants with a focus on customer interests. While the approach is of a universal character, the specific tools for evaluating BM on each stage may vary across different markets.

Originality/value
This research contributes to the current conceptual knowledge on BM studies development and their relationship with marketing. It also contributes to theory and practice by the development of a new marketing-based approach to the BM analysis focused on managing business relationships, which allows evaluation of the current state of a BM and provides directions for its improvement. This approach evaluates the alignment of interfirm relationships along the value chain and orients it toward the final consumer.
Aligning corporate and business strategy: managing the balance
Authors: Wadström Pontus 
Published: November 2018

Purpose
This study aims to expand the knowledge on strategy and alignment by exploring how executives and strategists can manage alignment between corporate and business strategy to leverage synergies, from a corporate strategy perspective, without limiting local responsiveness, from a business strategy perspective.

Design/methodology/approach
The study is characterized by privileged access and richness of data. A case study design was used to explore the results. Data include interviews, observations in workshops, material produced in workshops and personal field notes.

Findings
The study provides insights about how alignment between corporate and business strategy can be managed to balance requirements on both corporate and business strategy. To do so alignment needs be understood and managed based on its contribution to the competitiveness of the firm. In addition, alignment encompasses two dimensions: direction of alignment (which can be vertical and horizontal) and relation of alignment (which can be numerical and non-numerical). This leads to four different types of alignment.

Research limitations/implications
Explorative case studies yield results less generalizable. Future research is thus encouraged to confirm or contradict the results of this study.

Practical implications
When formulating strategy, executives and strategists need to consider what type of alignment is appropriate for what parts and elements of the strategies (e.g. goals and activities) to gain competitive advantage. By using different types of alignment, it is possible to balance the need for both corporate synergies and business responsiveness.

Originality/value
This study fulfils an identified need to study what alignment between strategies on different organizational levels encompasses and the potential risks of alignment.