bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
An improved glucose transport assay system for isolated mouse skeletal muscle tissues
Authors: Inagaki Akiko , Maruo Kanoko , Furuichi Yasuro , Miyatake Shouta , Tamura Kotaro , Fujii Nobuharu L , Manabe Yasuko 
Published: July 2016

Abstract
There is a growing demand for a system in the field of sarcopenia and diabetes research that could be used to evaluate the effects of functional food ingredients that enhance muscle mass/contractile force or muscle glucose uptake. In this study, we developed a new type of in vitro muscle incubation system that systemizes an apparatus for muscle incubation, using an electrode, a transducer, an incubator, and a pulse generator in a compact design. The new system enables us to analyze the muscle force stimulated by the electric pulses and glucose uptake during contraction and it may thus be a useful tool for analyzing the metabolic changes that occur during muscle contraction. The system may also contribute to the assessments of new food ingredients that act directly on skeletal muscle in the treatment of sarcopenia and diabetes.
The impact of trade credit use on firm profitability: empirical evidence from Sweden
Authors: Yazdanfar Darush , Öhman Peter 
Published: July 2016

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of trade credit as a funding source on profitability among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Design/methodology/approach
– A large cross-sectional panel data set covering 15,897 Swedish SMEs in five industry sectors from 2009 to 2012 was analysed using several statistical techniques.

Findings
– The study provides empirical evidence that the use of trade credit significantly and negatively affects firm profitability, indicating that SMEs with lower accounts payable are more profitable. Furthermore, liquidity level and firm size are positively related to profitability, while firm age is negatively related to profitability.

Practical implications
– If firms rely, or are forced to rely, too heavily on accounts payable as a funding source, their long-term profitability could be jeopardized. An efficient financing policy should make the costs related to the use of trade credit more transparent. Thus, firm managers could explicitly use trade credit agreements with their suppliers to control the costs related to this particular financial source.

Originality/value
– To the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to focus on the impact of trade credit on profitability in the Swedish context, where SMEs are encouraged to use trade credit as a funding source. In addition, the study is based on an extensive sample of SMEs across several industry sectors.
Factors influencing public transport passengers’ satisfaction: a new model
Authors: Sumaedi Sik , Bakti I Gede Mahatma Yuda , Rakhmawati Tri , Astrini Nidya J , Widianti Tri , Yarmen Medi 
Published: July 2016

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the simultaneous effect of perceived value, image, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness on passengers’ satisfaction.Design/methodology/approach– The empirical data were collected through survey. The respondents of the survey are 292 public transport passengers in Jakarta, Indonesia. Multiple regressions analysis was performed to test the conceptual model and the proposed hypotheses.Findings– The findings showed that public transport passengers’ satisfaction is influenced by perceived value, perceived usefulness and image while perceived ease of use does not affect public transport passengers’ satisfaction.Research limitations/implications– The authors performed the survey only at Jakarta using convenience sampling method. Hence, the research results may not be generalized to other contexts. Given this, in order to test the stability of the findings in other contexts, a replication research is important to be performed in the future.Practical implications– Public transport service managers need to pay attention to perceived value, perceived usefulness and image in order to ensure public transport passengers’ satisfaction.Originality/value– This study is believed to be the first to develop and test public transport passengers’ satisfaction model that integrated perceived value, image, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness.
Polymorphisms of 20 regulatory proteins between Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium bovis
Authors: Bigi María M. , Blanco Federico Carlos , Araújo Flabio R. , Thacker Tyler C. , Zumárraga Martín J. , Cataldi Angel A. , Soria Marcelo A. , Bigi Fabiana 
Published: July 2016

ABSTRACTMycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium bovis are responsible for tuberculosis in humans and animals, respectively. Both species are closely related and belong to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC). M. tuberculosis is the most ancient species from which M. bovis and other members of the MTC evolved. The genome of M. bovis is over >99.95% identical to that of M. tuberculosis but with seven deletions ranging in size from 1 to 12.7 kb. In addition, 1200 single nucleotide mutations in coding regions distinguish M. bovis from M. tuberculosis. In the present study, we assessed 75 M. tuberculosis genomes and 23 M. bovis genomes to identify non‐synonymous mutations in 202 coding sequences of regulatory genes between both species. We identified species‐specific variants in 20 regulatory proteins and confirmed differential expression of hypoxia‐related genes between M. bovis and M. tuberculosis.
Immune response in irritable bowel syndrome: A systematic review of systemic and mucosal inflammatory mediators
Authors: Martin‐Viñas Juan J , Quigley Eamonn M M 
Published: July 2016

AbstractObjectiveTo systematically review the available data on cytokine and immune cells in the peripheral blood and mucosal biopsy samples from patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).MethodsFrom a review of the literature, data on cytokines and immune cells that had been assayed in at least three independent studies were collated and trends examined.ResultsLevels of interleukin (IL)‐10 tended to be decreased and those of IL‐6, IL‐8, tumor necrosis factor‐α and IL‐1β increased in the systemic circulation in IBS, while in the mucosa, IL‐10 was decreased and IL‐8, mast cells, enterochromaffin cells and CD3+ T lymphocytes were increased. However, these findings were not consistent across all studies and, in some instances, were limited to certain IBS sub‐populations.ConclusionsThe interpretation of this literature is limited by several factors, such as the intrinsic heterogeneity of IBS and a lack of standardization in study design. While a number of intriguing immunological observations have been made in IBS, more work is needed before a compelling case can be made for a role for immune‐mediated events in the etiology of IBS.
A specific and widespread association between deep‐sea Bathymodiolus mussels and a novel family of Epsilonproteobacteria
Authors: Assié Adrien , Borowski Christian , van der Heijden Karina , Raggi Luciana , Geier Benedikt , Leisch Nikolaus , Schimak Mario P , Dubilier Nicole , Petersen Jillian M 
Published: July 2016

SummaryBathymodiolus mussels dominate animal communities at many hydrothermal vents and cold seeps. Essential to the mussels’ ecological and evolutionary success is their association with symbiotic methane‐ and sulfur‐oxidizing gammaproteobacteria, which provide them with nutrition. In addition to these well‐known gammaproteobacterial endosymbionts, we found epsilonproteobacterial sequences in metatranscriptomes, metagenomes and 16S rRNA clone libraries as well as by polymerase chain reaction screening of Bathymodiolus species sampled from vents and seeps around the world. These epsilonproteobacterial sequences were closely related, indicating that the association is highly specific. The Bathymodiolus‐associated epsilonproteobacterial 16S rRNA sequences were at most 87.6% identical to the closest cultured relative, and 91.2% identical to the closest sequences in public databases. This clade therefore represents a novel family within the Epsilonproteobacteria. Fluorescence in situ hybridization and transmission electron microscopy showed that the bacteria are filamentous epibionts associated with the gill epithelia in two Bathymodiolus species. In animals that host highly specific symbioses with one or a few types of endosymbionts, other less‐abundant members of the microbiota can be easily overlooked. Our work highlights how widespread and specific associations with less‐abundant microbes can be. Possibly, these microbes play an important role in the survival and health of their animal hosts.
Mapping Averaged Pairwise Information (MAPI): a new exploratory tool to uncover spatial structure
Authors: Piry Sylvain , Chapuis Marie‐Pierre , Gauffre Bertrand , Papaïx Julien , Cruaud Astrid , Berthier Karine 
Published: July 2016

Summary

Visualisation of spatial networks based on pairwise metrics such as (dis)similarity coefficients provides direct information on spatial organisation of biological systems. However, for large networks, graphical representations are often unreadable as nodes (samples), and edges (links between samples) strongly overlap. We present a new method, MAPI, allowing translation from spatial networks to variation surfaces.

MAPI relies on (i) a spatial network in which samples are linked by ellipses and (ii) a grid of hexagonal cells encompassing the study area. Pairwise metric values are attributed to ellipses and averaged within the cells they intersect. The resulting surface of variation can be displayed as a colour map in Geographical Information System (GIS), along with other relevant layers, such as land cover. The method also allows the identification of significant discontinuities in grid cell values through a nonparametric randomisation procedure.

The interest of MAPI is here demonstrated in the field of spatial and landscape genetics. Using simulated test data sets, as well as observed data from three biological models, we show that MAPI is (i) relatively insensitive to confounding effects resulting from isolation by distance (i.e. over‐structuring), (ii) efficient in detecting barriers when they are not too permeable to gene flow and, (iii) useful to explore relationships between spatial genetic patterns and landscape features.

MAPI is freely provided as a PostgreSQL/PostGIS data base extension allowing easy interaction with GIS or the r software and other programming languages. Although developed for spatial and landscape genetics, the method can also be useful to visualise spatial organisation from other kinds of data from which pairwise metrics can be computed.
Reasons for Hospitalization Among Emergency Department Patients With Syncope
Authors: Cook Olivia G. , Mukarram Muhammad A. , Rahman Omair M. , Kim Soo‐Min , Arcot Kirtana , Thavorn Kednapa , Taljaard Monica , Sivilotti Marco L. A. , Rowe Brian H. , Thiruganasambandamoorthy Venkatesh 
Published: July 2016

AbstractBackgroundVariations in syncope management exist. Our objective was to identify the reasons for consultations and hospitalizations and outcomes among emergency department (ED) syncope patients.MethodsWe conducted a prospective cohort study to enroll adult syncope patients at five EDs. We collected baseline characteristics, reasons for consultation and hospitalization, and hospital length of stay. Adjudicated 30‐day serious adverse events (SAEs) including death, myocardial infarction, arrhythmia, structural heart disease, pulmonary embolism, significant hemorrhage, and procedural intervention. We used descriptive analysis.ResultsFrom 4,064 enrolled patients (mean ± SD age = 53.1 ± 23.2 years; 55.9% female), 3,255 (80.1%) were discharged directly by the ED physician. Of those with no SAEs identified in the ED (n = 600), 42.8% of referrals and 46.5% of hospitalizations were for suspected arrhythmias, and 71.2% of patients hospitalized for arrhythmias had no cause identified. SAEs among groups were 9.7% in total, 2.5% discharged by ED physician, 3.4% discharged by consultant, 21.7% as inpatient, and 4.8% following discharge from hospital. The median hospital length of stay for suspected arrhythmias was 5 days (interquartile range = 3 to 8 days).ConclusionCardiac syncope, particularly suspected arrhythmia, was the major reason for ED referrals and hospitalization. The majority of patients hospitalized for cardiac monitoring had no identified cause. An important number of patients suffered SAEs, particularly arrhythmias, outside the hospital. Development of a risk‐stratification tool and out‐of‐hospital cardiac monitoring strategy should improve patient safety and save substantial resources.
Changes in newspaper coverage of mental illness from 2008 to 2014 in England
Authors: Rhydderch D. , Krooupa A.‐M. , Shefer G. , Goulden R. , Williams P. , Thornicroft A. , Rose D. , Thornicroft G. , Henderson C. 
Published: July 2016

ObjectiveThis study evaluates English newspaper coverage of mental health topics between 2008 and 2014 to provide context for the concomitant improvement in public attitudes and seek evidence for changes in coverage.MethodArticles in 27 newspapers were retrieved using keyword searches on two randomly chosen days each month in 2008–2014, excluding 2012 due to restricted resources. Content analysis used a structured coding framework. Univariate logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds of each hypothesised element occurring each year compared to 2008.ResultsThere was a substantial increase in the number of articles covering mental health between 2008 and 2014. We found an increase in the proportion of antistigmatising articles which approached significance at P < 0.05 (OR = 1.21, P = 0.056). The decrease in stigmatising articles was not statistically significant (OR = 0.90, P = 0.312). There was a significant decrease in the proportion of articles featuring the stigmatising elements ‘danger to others’ and ‘personal responsibility’, and an increase in ‘hopeless victim’. There was a significant proportionate increase in articles featuring the antistigmatising elements ‘injustice’ and ‘stigma’, but a decrease in ‘sympathetic portrayal of people with mental illness’.ConclusionWe found a decrease in articles promoting ideas about dangerousness or mental illness being self‐inflicted, but an increase in articles portraying people as incapable. Yet, these findings were not consistent over time.
The role of transformative leadership, ICT‐infrastructure and learning climate in teachers' use of digital learning materials during their classes
Authors: Vermeulen Marjan , Kreijns Karel , van Buuren Hans , Van Acker Frederik 
Published: July 2016

AbstractThis study investigated whether school organizational variables (ie, transformative leadership (TL), ICT‐infrastructure (technical and social) and organizational learning climate were related to teachers' dispositional variables (ie, attitude, perceived norm and perceived behavior control [PBC]). The direct and indirect influences of the organizational variables on teachers' intention and use of digital learning materials (DLMs) were also investigated. A longitudinal design was used with three measurements spread out over four years. A total number of 544 randomly selected teachers from the Dutch primary, secondary and vocational education responded to all questionnaires. Model fit was tested using structural equation modeling. All dispositional variables predicted the use of DLMs, mediated by teachers' intention. TL had direct and indirect relationships via ICT‐infrastructure and learning climate with attitude, perceived norm and PBC. The longitudinal design proved the chronological effect of TL on learning climate and the dispositional variables. However, not all TL dimensions had relationships with ICT‐infrastructure (only TL‐vision and TL‐intellectual stimulation) and with learning climate (only TL‐intellectual stimulation). For educational practice, the results indicated that leadership can promote teachers' use of DLMs directly and by supporting a school wide learning climate under the condition that an ICT‐infrastructure exists.
Arranging Objects in Space: Measuring Task‐Relevant Organizational Behaviors During Goal Pursuit
Authors: Solman Grayden J. F. , Kingstone Alan 
Published: July 2016

AbstractHuman behavior unfolds primarily in built environments, where the arrangement of objects is a result of ongoing human decisions and actions, yet these organizational decisions have received limited experimental study. In two experiments, we introduce a novel paradigm designed to explore how individuals organize task‐relevant objects in space. Participants completed goals by locating and accessing sequences of objects in a computer‐based task, and they were free to rearrange the positions of objects at any time. We measure a variety of organization changes and evaluate how these measures relate to individual differences in performance. In Experiment 1, we show that with weak structure in task demands, changes in object positions that arise through performance of the task lead to improved order, characterized predominantly by a centralization of frequently used items and a peripheralization of infrequently used objects. In Experiment 2, with increased task structure, we observe more refined organizational tendencies, with selective contraction and clustering of interrelated task‐relevant objects. We further demonstrate that these more selective organization behaviors are reliably associated with individual differences in task performance. Collectively, these two studies reveal properties of space and of task demands that support and facilitate effective organization of the environment in support of ongoing behavior.
Macroeconomic Rebalancing in China and the G20
Authors: Frieden Jeffry A. 
Published: July 2016

AbstractThe principal challenge facing the world economy is the risk of recurrent financial crises. Global macroeconomic imbalances create the conditions for boom‐and‐bust cycles that are extremely costly for the countries that experience them, and that can affect other nations and the entire world economy as well. The G20 recognizes the importance of these trends, and has committed itself to cooperative measures to reduce imbalances. However, progress has been limited and halting. There are major political obstacles to global macroeconomic policy cooperation, both within countries and among countries. China's attempts to rebalance its economy are crucial to broader international financial stability. Its G20 presidency gives China the opportunity to demonstrate that it is willing and able to advance its cooperation with economic partners, and to help lead the rest of the world in this direction.
Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: The Role for the G20 from China's Perspective
Authors: Li Xiaoyun , Zhou Taidong 
Published: July 2016

AbstractDevelopment became a G20 priority under the Korean presidency in 2010 and has remained central to global summitry ever since. Although the G20 has formally involved itself in the post‐2015 process following the St. Petersburg Summit in 2013 and emphasized the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a core priority under Turkey's presidency in 2015, the UN remains the main channel for global negotiations and discussions of the post‐2015 development agenda up to its approval and adoption in September 2015 and will continue to play the leading role in the follow‐up implementation and tracking of SDGs. The present paper argues that as the SDGs come to dominate the agenda and action of donors and issues of financing take central stage, the G20 can play an important role in facilitating the implementation of the SDGs due to its various strengths, although it also faces serious challenges. The paper also points out that as the 2016 G20 chair, China can make great contributions in advancing the implementation of the SDGs both domestically and internationally.
Dilemmas in international research and the value of practical wisdom
Authors: Jarvis Kimberly 
Published: July 2016

AbstractWhen conducting research in an international setting, in a country different than that of the researcher, unpredictable circumstances can arise. A study conducted by a novice North American researcher with a vulnerable population in northern Ghana highlights these happenings with an emphasis placed on the ethical challenges encountered. An illustration from the research is used to highlight an ethical dilemma while in the field, and how utilizing a moral decision‐making framework can assist in making choices about a participant's right to autonomy, privacy, and confidentiality during the research process. Moral frameworks, however, can never be enough to solve a dilemma since guidelines only describe what to aim for and not how to interpret or use them. Researchers must therefore strive to move beyond these frameworks to employ practical wisdom or phronesis so to combine the right thing to do with the skill required to figure out what the right choice is. The skill of practical wisdom must be acquired because without it international researchers indecisively fumble around with good intentions, often leaving a situation in worse shape than they found it.
Urinary incontinence as a predictor of death after new‐onset stroke: a meta‐analysis
Authors: John G. , Bardini C. , Mégevand P. , Combescure C. , Dällenbach P. 
Published: July 2016

Background and purpose
Urinary incontinence (UI) could be an indicator of increased mortality after new‐onset stroke. The aim of the present meta‐analysis was to characterize this association.
Methods
A systematic search retrieved all studies exploring the post‐stroke period and comparing death among patients suffering from UI with those without UI. Hazard ratios (HRs) were extracted or estimated from the published proportion of deaths. Various meta‐analyses pooled unadjusted HRs, HRs adjusted for confounders and HRs stratified by subgroups of strokes (ischaemic or haemorrhagic), using models with random effects. Heterogeneity was explored through stratification of studies and meta‐regression of predefined parameters.
Results
The meta‐analysis included 24 studies. UI increased the mortality among the general stroke patients in pooled unadjusted (HR, 5.1; 95% CI, 3.9–6.7) and adjusted (HR, 2.2; 95% CI, 1.8–2.7) analyses. This association was also found among ischaemic (HR, 8.5; 95% CI, 4.6–15.7) and haemorrhagic (HR, 3.9; 95% CI, 1.4–11.3) subgroups of strokes. Studies including indwelling catheters, published more than 10 years ago or with the highest quality on the selection criteria of the Newcastle–Ottawa Quality Assessment scale were associated with a greater effect of UI on mortality. Funnel plots showed a clear asymmetry for adjusted associations. After correcting for this potential publication bias, the pooled HRs still demonstrated a positive association between UI and mortality.
Conclusions
Urinary incontinence indicates high risk of death after a new‐onset stroke. Validity of the analyses on adjusted models is limited by an obvious publication bias.