bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Reconstitution of a minimal machinery capable of assembling periplasmic type IV pili
Authors: Goosens Vivianne J. , Busch Andreas , Georgiadou Michaella , Castagnini Marta , Forest Katrina T. , Waksman Gabriel , Pelicic Vladimir 
Published: June 2017

Significance
Type IV pili (Tfp) define a group of multipurpose filamentous nanomachines widespread in Bacteria and Archaea. Tfp biogenesis is a complex process relying on machines composed of up to 15 conserved proteins. Here, to improve our limited understanding of the molecular mechanisms of filament assembly, we have reconstituted in a nonpiliated heterologous host a minimal machinery capable of building Tfp. We show that eight proteins are sufficient to promote filament assembly and that they form a macromolecular complex at the cytoplasmic membrane, which we have purified and characterized biochemically. Our results contribute to a better mechanistic understanding of the functioning of filamentous nanomachines nearly ubiquitous in prokaryotes.
Effect of water flow and chemical environment on microbiota growth and composition in the human colon
Authors: Cremer Jonas , Arnoldini Markus , Hwa Terence 
Published: June 2017

Significance
The human gut is populated by a dense microbial population, strongly impacting health and disease. Metagenomic sequencing has led to crucial insights into microbiota changes in response to various perturbations, but a mechanistic understanding of these changes is largely missing. As the composition of the gut microbiota is a consequence of bacterial growth, we propose an approach that focuses on bacterial growth in the human large intestine and the physiological factors influencing it. Using a combination of experimental analysis and quantitative simulations, we explain the observed variation in microbiota composition among healthy humans and the dominant role of nutrient inflow and stool consistency. Our quantitative modeling framework is a step toward a predictive understanding of microbiota dynamics in the human host.
Isolation of membrane vesicles from prokaryotes: a technical and biological comparison reveals heterogeneity
Authors: Dauros Singorenko Priscila , Chang Vanessa , Whitcombe Alana , Simonov Denis , Hong Jiwon , Phillips Anthony , Swift Simon , Blenkiron Cherie 
Published: June 2017

ABSTRACTProkaryotes release membrane vesicles (MVs) with direct roles in disease pathogenesis. MVs are heterogeneous when isolated from bacterial cultures so Density Gradient Centrifugation (DGC) is valuable for separation of MV subgroups from contaminating material. Here we report the technical variability and natural biological heterogeneity seen between DGC preparations of MVs for Mycobacterium smegmatis and Escherichia coli and compare these DGC data with size exclusion chromatography (SEC) columns. Crude preparations of MVs, isolated from cultures by ultrafiltration and ultracentrifugation were separated by DGC with fractions manually collected as guided by visible bands. Yields of protein, RNA and endotoxin, protein banding and particle counts were analysed in these. DGC and SEC methods enabled separation of molecularly distinct MV populations from crude MVs. DGC banding profiles were unique for each of the two species of bacteria tested and further altered by changing culture conditions, for example with iron supplementation. SEC is time efficient, reproducible and cost effective method that may also allow partial LPS removal from Gram‐negative bacterial MVs. In summary, both DGC and SEC are suitable for the separation of mixed populations of MVs and we advise trials of both, coupled with complete molecular and single vesicle characterisation prior to downstream experimentation.
Minimally Invasive Microsurgical Resection of Primary, Intradural Spinal Tumors is Feasible and Safe: A Consecutive Series of 83 Patients
Authors: Formo Maja , Halvorsen Charlotte Marie , Dahlberg Daniel , Brommeland Tor , Fredø Hege , Hald John , Scheie David , Langmoen Iver A , Lied Bjarne , Helseth Eirik 
Published: June 2017

Abstract

BACKGROUND
To date, the traditional approach to intraspinal tumors has been open laminectomy or laminoplasty followed by microsurgical tumor resection. Recently, however, minimally invasive approaches have been attempted by some.

OBJECTIVE
To investigate the feasibility and safety of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) for primary intradural spinal tumors.

METHODS
Medical charts of 83 consecutive patients treated with MIS for intradural spinal tumors were reviewed. Patients were followed up during the study year, 2015, by either routine history/physical examination or by telephone consultation, with a focus on tumor status and surgery-related complications.

RESULTS
Mean age at surgery was 53.7 yr and 52% were female. There were 49 schwannomas, 18 meningeomas, 10 ependymomas, 2 hemangioblastomas, 1 neurofibroma, 1 paraganglioma, 1 epidermoid cyst, and 1 hemangiopericytoma. The surgical mortality was 0%. In 87% of cases, gross total resection was achieved. The complication rate was 11%, including 2 cerebrospinal fluid leakages, 1 asymptomatic pseudomeningocele, 2 superficial surgical site infections, 1 sinus vein thrombosis, and 4 cases of neurological deterioration. There were no postoperative hematomas, and no cases of deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism. Ninety-three percent of patients were ambulatory and able to work at the time of follow-up.

CONCLUSION
This study both demonstrates that it is feasible and safe to remove select, primary intradural spinal tumors using MIS, and augments the previous literature in favor of MIS for these tumors.
Susceptibility to Cryptococcal Meningoencephalitis Associated With Idiopathic CD4+ Lymphopenia and Secondary Germline or Acquired Defects
Authors: Panackal Anil A. , Rosen Lindsey B. , Uzel Gulbu , Davis Michael J. , Hu Guowu , Adeyemo Adebowale , Tekola-Ayele Fasil , Lisco Andrea , Diachok Christopher , Kim Jonathan D. , Shaw Dawn , Sereti Irini , Stoddard Jennifer , Niemela Julie , Rosenzweig Sergio D. , Bennett John E. , Williamson Peter R. 
Published: June 2017

Abstract
Idiopathic CD4+ lymphopenia (ICL) predisposes to opportunistic infections (OIs) but can often remain asymptomatic and does not have a strong association with monogenic mutations. Likewise, cryptococcal meningoencephalitis, the most common OI in ICL, is not strongly associated with monogenic mutations. In this study, we describe 2 patients with ICL plus an additional immune defect: one from an E57K genetic mutation in the nuclear factor-κβ essential modulator, and the other with acquired autoantibodies to granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor. Thus, these cases may exemplify a “multi-hit model” in patients with ICL who acquire OIs.
Medication Adherence Mediates the Relationship Between Heart Failure Symptoms and Cardiac Event-Free Survival in Patients With Heart Failure
Authors: Wu Jia-Rong , Moser Debra K. 
Published: June 2017

Background:
Heart failure (HF) symptoms such as dyspnea are common and may precipitate hospitalization. Medication nonadherence is presumed to be associated with symptom exacerbations, yet how HF symptoms, medication adherence, and hospitalization/death are related remains unclear.

Objective:
The aim of this study was to explore the relationships among HF symptoms, medication adherence, and cardiac event-free survival in patients with HF.

Methods:
At baseline, patient demographics, clinical data, and HF symptoms were collected in 219 patients with HF. Medication adherence was monitored using the Medication Event Monitoring System. Patients were followed for up to 3.5 years to collect hospitalization and survival data. Logistic regression and survival analyses were used for the analyses.

Results:
Patients reporting dyspnea or ankle swelling were more likely to have poor medication adherence (P = .05). Poor medication adherence was associated with worse cardiac event-free survival (P = .006). In Cox regression, patients with HF symptoms had 2 times greater risk for a cardiac event than patients without HF symptoms (P = .042). Heart failure symptoms were not a significant predictor of cardiac event-free survival after entering medication adherence in the model (P = .091), indicating mediation.

Conclusions:
Medication adherence was associated with fewer HF symptoms and lower rates of hospitalization and death. It is important to develop interventions to improve medication adherence that may reduce HF symptoms and high hospitalization and mortality in patients with HF.
Quality measures in gastrointestinal endoscopy: the current state
Authors: Adams Megan A. , Saini Sameer D. , Allen John I. 
Published: June 2017

Purpose of review
The purpose of this review is to summarize the current state of endoscopic quality measurement and use of measures in enhancing the value of endoscopic services.

Recent findings
Initially, quality measurement of endoscopic procedures was claims based or included small unit or practice-specific efforts. Now we have a mature national registry and large electronic medical or procedural records that are designed to yield valuable data relevant to quality measurement.

Summary
With the advent of better measures, we are beginning to understand that initial process and surrogate outcome measures (adenoma detection rate) can be improved to provide a better reflection of endoscopic quality. Importantly, however, even measures currently in use relate to important patient outcomes such as missed colon cancers. At a federal level, older cumbersome pay-for-performance initiatives have been combined into a new overarching program named the quality payment program within the centers for medicare and medicaid services. This program is an additional step toward furthering the progress from volume-to-value-based reimbursement. The legislation mandating the movement toward outcomes-linked (value) reimbursement is the medicare access and children's health insurance program reauthorization act, which was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and will not be walked back by alterations of the affordable care act. Increasing portions of medicare reimbursement (and likely commercial to follow) will be linked to quality metrics, so familiarity with the underlying process and rationale will be important for all proceduralists.
Dilemma of “Make in India” for Dalmec industrial manipulator S.P.A, Italy
Authors: Pandey Mithilesh , Shukla Yupal Sanatkumar 
Published: June 2017

Subject area
The subject areas are strategic management, international marketing business-to-business marketing.

Study level/applicability
The study is applicable to undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

Case overview
Dalmec Industries Manipulators India Pvt. Ltd. was incorporated in 2011 as a private limited company under the Companies Act, 1956. The company was formed to carry on importing machinery and distributing it to the clients. This case focuses on the dilemma faced by the company: whether it should establish a manufacturing unit in India or continue with the current operation procedures. Dalmec has faced various problems in India regarding local players, low-cost material handling equipment and the nascent stage of material handling industry. In Europe and the Middle East, the industries are more focused on safety standards and provide high quality material handling products to their workers, compared to the Indian industries. As local players in material handling sectors price their product very low, to compete with them with quality products is a major challenge for foreign companies. The company needed to build a strong and unique brand for non-European markets. In India, the material handling equipment market is crowded with local players. So, Dalmec needs to establish its reputation as a reliable partner and create a distinct identity. It has to create brand awareness among Indian companies and influence the decision makers of the corporates. The case discusses the impact of Make in India campaign on Dalmec and examines whether the Make in India initiative will prove helpful to Dalmec.

Expected learning outcomes
This study enables to familiarize students with the expansion strategy of a company; help students understand the international market entry strategies frequently used by multinationals to expand their business.; examine the feasibility of entering into emerging markets like India; and make students understand the relevance of the Make in India campaign for foreign corporate players.

Supplementary materials
Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Subject code
CSS 11: Strategy.
People with intellectual disabilities accessing mainstream mental health services: some facts, features and professional considerations
Authors: Standen Penelope Jane , Clifford Adam , Jeenkeri Kiran 
Published: June 2017

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide information for non-specialists on identifying the characteristics, assessment and support needs of people with intellectual disabilities (ID) accessing mainstream services.

Design/methodology/approach
A review of relevant policy and research literature is supplemented with observations from the authors’ own experience of working in mental health services for people with ID.

Findings
With change in provision of services the likelihood of mainstream staff encountering someone with ID will increase. However, information on whether a person has ID or their level of ID is not always available to professionals in acute mental health services meeting an individual for the first time. Reliance on observational and interview-based assessments can leave people with ID vulnerable to a range of over- and under-diagnosis issues. This is as a result of difficulties with communication and emotional introspection, psychosocial masking, suggestibility, confabulation and acquiescence. For people with poor communication, carers will be the primary source of information and their contribution has to be taken into account.

Practical implications
Knowing or suspecting an individual has ID allows staff to take into account the various assessment, diagnosis and formulation issues that complicate a valid and reliable understanding of their mental health needs. Awareness about an individual’s ID also allows professionals to be vigilant to their own biases, where issues of diagnostic overshadowing or cognitive disintegration may be important considerations. However, understanding some of the practical and conceptual issues should ensure a cautious and critical approach to diagnosing, formulating and addressing this population’s mental health needs.

Originality/value
This synthesis of a review of the literature and observations from the authors’ experience of working in mental health services for people with ID provides an informed and practical briefing for those encountering people with ID accessing mainstream services.
Hedonic and eudaimonic well-being outcomes from co-creation roles: a study of vulnerable customers
Authors: Sharma Shikha , Conduit Jodie , Rao Hill Sally 
Published: June 2017

Purpose
This study aims to provide an understanding of how the participation of vulnerable customers in the co-creation of health-care provision influences their individual well-being outcomes. Using self-determination theory, it demonstrates that co-creation at the point of care and at an organisational or system level impacts individual hedonic and eudaimonic well-being.

Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative approach is adopted to identify the various customer well-being outcomes. Two case studies of health-care organisations, comprising ten in-depth interviews and eight focus groups, as well as documents and noted observations are used for thematic analysis.

Findings
The study demonstrates ways in which vulnerable customers integrate resources to co-create value outcomes. It shows how differing co-creative role of customers with mental illness lead to different customer well-being outcomes. These roles manifest not only the hedonic well-being characteristics of pleasure and happiness but also eudaimonic well-being, which provides a sense of achievement and purpose to customers. The study used self-determination theory to identify different forms of eudaimonic well-being derived from the co-creation roles of co-producer, strategic partner and community citizen.

Originality/value
The co-creation and transformative service literature is extended by demonstrating that a feeling of self-efficacy and self-determination because of value co-creation foster customer well-being. This study demonstrates that co-creation at the point of care and at an organisational or system level impacts individual hedonic and eudaimonic well-being.
Becoming global leaders: innovation challenges for five large Chinese firms
Authors: Chakravarthy Bala , Yau David 
Published: June 2017

Purpose
In order to be a true global leader, Chinese firms must be able to be trailblazers in both emerging and advanced markets.

Design/methodology/approach
Five major Chinese companies are studied: Each of the five leaders has shown interest in building an organization that can nurture innovation that is more than incremental.

Findings
Each of the five companies needs a clear long-term vision that will guide innovation and point to where these companies should place their slow-to-pay-off R&D bets.

Practical implications
The agility to take advantage quickly as opportunities emerge–by practicing frequent experimentation, promptly divesting failed projects and rapidly scaling up investments in successful ones–has been an important ability that has contributed to the success of the five companies.

Originality/value
Breakthrough product innovation will be an important competence for the future success of these five Chinese companies. Some of the five companies have developed a growing appetite for external collaboration to drive innovation.
Heterogeneous Welfare Effect of Cotton Pricing on Households in Benin
Authors: Alia Didier Yélognissè , Floquet Anne , Adjovi Epiphane 
Published: June 2017

AbstractSince 2004–2005 the cotton sector in Benin has been experiencing major problems that have caused a decline in production. To help the sector recover, the government intensified its intervention in the form of prices support. This study assesses the impacts of sharp increases in producer prices during the years 2009–2012 on cotton production and the distributional impacts on welfare. Using a partial adjustment model of supply response, we estimate that cotton supply elasticity ranges between 1.3 and 2.6, suggesting that cotton production responds strongly to price incentives. Next, we use concepts of compensating variation and net benefit ratio measures to analyse the welfare implications. We find that an increase in price from 190 FCFA per kg in 2009 to 250 FCFA per kg in 2012 led to a 9.8 percent increase in producers’ welfare. Non‐parametric regressions showed that the increase in cotton prices likely benefited all households across the entire income distribution. However, the gains are larger for rich farmers in the northern regions where cotton is predominant.
Economic Expansion and Environmental Sustainability Nexus in Ghana
Authors: Aboagye Solomon 
Published: June 2017

AbstractIn recent years, following the continued rise in the level of degradation and pollution in developing and emerging economies, the debate on the costs, benefits and longer‐term implications of growth policies on the environment has intensified among stakeholders. Although economic expansion remains paramount in policy, ensuring environmental sustainability amidst the quest to stimulate growth in Ghana has assumed a central theme in its contemporary growth agenda. Exploring annual time series data spanning 1975–2015 this study examined, in Ghana, the environmental impact of economic expansion within the standard Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework. The Autoregressive Distributed Lagged bounds approach to cointegration did not confirm the existence of EKC for any of the environmental indicators in the short run, but was robustly established in the long run for CO2 emissions and energy consumption. This conclusion implies that, given the long‐run parameters of Ghana, beyond a certain income level, degradation emanating from energy consumption and CO2 emissions will eventually fall as the country's economy expands. The study is the first to examine the effect of economic expansion on three of the most important environmental indicators in Ghana and also to employ an environmentally adjusted income variable as a measure of environment sustainability.
Macroeconomic Determinants of Unemployment: Empirical Evidence from Economic Community of West African States
Authors: Folawewo Abiodun O. , Adeboje Oluwafemi M. 
Published: June 2017

AbstractThis paper builds on Okun's law and Phillips curve theoretical frameworks to analyse the relationship between macroeconomic aggregates and unemployment in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Fixed and random effects, as well as fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOL) panel data estimation techniques are employed on annual data covering 1991 to 2014. Empirical analyses are performed at both aggregate ECOWAS data level and sub‐regional levels, that is, Francophone and Anglophone country levels. Results show that gross domestic product (GDP) growth has a reducing but insignificant effect on unemployment rate, which indicates low employment elasticity of growth in the region. Inflation has an overwhelming positive impact on unemployment, indicating invalidity of the Phillips curve hypothesis. Another important finding of the paper is the positive impact of labour productivity on unemployment rate, reflecting a trade‐off between labour productivity and employment. Further, FDI and external debt exert a weak negative impact on unemployment, while population growth has an increasing effect. The paper suggests the need for enabling macroeconomic environment that promotes employment generation in the ECOWAS region.
Investigating the Nexus between Institutional Quality and Stock Market Development in Nigeria: An Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Approach
Authors: Manasseh Charles O. , Mathew Timothy E. , Ogbuabor Jonathan E. 
Published: June 2017

AbstractThis study investigates the nexus between institutional quality and stock market development. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (ARDL (1,1)) and ARDL bounds testing procedure (Pesaranet al.,) was adopted for the estimation. We used annual time series data that covers the periods 1985 to 2013. Institutional quality is measured with corruption control, democratic accountability and bureaucratic quality, while stock market development is measured with market capitalization ratio. The institutional quality captures the degree of transparency and the level of investors' confidence while market capitalization measures overall performance. In addition, we also accounted for the influence of the banking sector (proxy: ratio of credit to the private sector). We control for the influence of variables such as stock market liquidity and per capita income. The results of the bounds test suggest that institutional quality and market development move together in the long run. Further investigation also shows that corruption control and democratic accountability are key institutional measures that impact significantly on stock market development, suggesting that institutional quality promotes the degree of transparency and investors' confidence. Other variables such as stock market liquidity, bureaucratic quality and per capita income were also found to be important determinants of stock market development in Nigeria. Hence, given the above findings, the relevant authorities should increase their efforts to control the level of corruption through the enhancement of the regulatory framework that could ensure accountability and efficient monitoring of the market actors for the sustainability of investors' confidence and the promotion of stock market development in Nigeria.