bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Duration estimation model for bridge construction projects in Ghana
Authors: Nani Gabriel , Mensah Isaac , Adjei-Kumi Theophilus 
Published: October 2017

Purpose
A major concern for construction professionals at the rural road agency in Ghana is the problem of fixing contract duration for bridge construction projects in rural areas. The purpose of the study was to develop a tool for construction professionals to forecast duration for bridge projects.

Design/methodology/approach
In all, 100 questionnaires were distributed to professionals at the Department of Feeder Roads to ascertain their views on the work items in a bill of quantities (BOQ) that impact significantly on the duration of bridge construction projects. Historical data for 30 completed bridge projects were also collected from the same Department. The data collected were executed work items in BOQ and actual durations used in completing the works. The qualitative data were analysed using the relative importance index and the quantitative data, processed and analysed using both the stepwise regression method and artificial neural network (ANN) technique.

Findings
The identified predictors, namely, in-situ concrete, weight of prefabricated steel components, gravel sub-base and haulage of aggregates, used as independent variables resulted in the development of a regression model with a mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 25 per cent and an ANN model with a feed forward back propagation algorithm with an MAPE of 26 per cent at the validation stage. The study has shown that both regression and ANN models are appropriate for predicting the duration of a new bridge construction project.

Research limitations/implications
The predictors used in the developed models are limited to work items in BOQs only of completed bridge construction projects as well as the small sample size.

Practical implications
The study has developed a working tool for practitioners at the agency to forecast contract duration for bridge projects prior to its commencement.

Originality value
The study has quantified the relationship between the work items in BOQs and the duration of bridge construction projects using the stepwise regression method and the ANN techniques.
“Appily ever after”: how to create your own library mobile app through easy to use, low cost technology
Authors: Boller Susan 
Published: October 2017

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that library staff can develop their own mobile app without having significant technology experience by using existing, easily accessible low-cost programs. Smart phones and tablets are here to stay. Libraries need to embrace this trend by developing mobile apps to encourage reading and provide access to resources that are safe and educational. It is about putting technology at the service of reading. Susan Boller and Marie-Pierre Preece, librarians at Les Marronniers Primary School at the International School of Geneva, received wide recognition when they were awarded the 2016 ALA Presidential Citation for Innovative International Library Projects for their mobile application “Marronniers Library”.

Design/methodology/approach
The search to develop a mobile application was challenging. “The process was long and complex, as we had a very small budget and no particular expertise in information technology”. While researching the best way to develop an app for her library, Susan Boller explored a wide range of options with differing costs ranging from a few hundred dollars to over $20,000 (for a custom-built app).

Findings
It is feasible for a school library with limited resources to develop its own mobile application. The library staff can develop such an app without having significant technology experience by using existing easily accessible low-cost programs. Developing and maintaining such an app do not require specialist IT knowledge, and these can be done internally by people interested in technology. The app is good value. The annual cost, excluding subscriptions to databases, is approximately $400. Such an app is well sustainable. The chosen platform is flexible and allows the content to be continuously maintained and updated internally at any moment without additional cost.

Originality/value
Having been awarded the 2016 ALA Presidential Citation for Innovative International Library Projects demonstrates the originality of the author's “Marronniers Library” mobile application. It is, to the best of the author's knowledge, the only one of its kind in a primary school library.
Implications of the selfie for marketing management practice in the era of celebrity
Authors: Hackley Chris , Hackley Rungpaka Amy , Bassiouni Dina H. 
Published: October 2017

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of the selfie for marketing management in the era of celebrity. The purpose is to show that the facilitation of the creative performance of consumer identity is a key element of the marketing management task for the media convergence era.

Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses the selfie, the picture of oneself taken by oneself, as a metaphor to develop a conceptual exploration of the nature of marketing in the light of the dominance of celebrity and entertainment in contemporary media and entertainment.

Findings
The paper suggests that marketing management in the era of convergence should facilitate consumers’ identity projects through participatory and engaging social media initiatives. Marketers must furnish and facilitate not only the props for consumers mediated identity performances, but also the scripts, sets and scenes, plot devices, cinematographic and other visual techniques, costumes, looks, movements, characterizations and narratives.

Research limitations/implications
This is a conceptual paper that sketches out the beginning of a re-framed, communication-focussed vision of marketing management in the era of media convergence.

Practical implications
Marketing managers can benefit from thinking about consumer marketing as the stage management of consumer visual, physical, virtual, sensory and psychic environments that enable consumers to actively participate in celebrity culture.

Originality/value
This paper suggests ways in which marketing practice can emerge from its pre-digital frame to embrace the new digital cultures of consumption.
Cherry‐picking participation: Explaining the fate of proposals from participatory processes
Authors: FONT JOAN , SMITH GRAHAM , GALAIS CAROL , ALARCON PAU 
Published: October 2017

AbstractWhat happens to the proposals generated by participatory processes? One of the key aspects of participatory processes that has been the subject of rare systematic analysis and comparison is the fate of their outputs: their policy proposals. Which specific factors explain whether these proposals are accepted, rejected or transformed by public authorities? In this article contextual and proposal‐related factors are identified that are likely to affect the prospect of proposals being implemented. The explanatory power of these factors are tested through multilevel analysis on a diverse set of 571 policy proposals. The findings offer evidence that both contextual and proposal‐related variables are important. The design of participatory processes affects the degree of implementation, with participatory budgeting and higher quality processes being particularly effective. Most significant for explaining outcomes are proposal‐level, economic and political factors: a proposal's cost, the extent to which it challenges existing policy and the degree of support it has within the municipality all strongly affect the chance of implementation.
Trends in non‐lactation breast abscesses in a tertiary hospital setting
Authors: Saboo Apoorva , Bennett Ian 
Published: October 2017

BackgroundThe aim of this paper was to retrospectively review non‐lactation breast abscesses treated in Princess Alexandra Hospital over a 10‐year period and to illustrate the trends in size, risk factors, microbiological profile and management.MethodsA computerized search of the medical records was undertaken to identify all adult patients with a diagnosis of breast abscesses during June 2005–June 2015. Patients concurrently breastfeeding were excluded. A retrospectively review of the clinical records was performed.ResultsEighty‐five abscesses were identified in 77 patients. The median patient age was 45 years and 93.7% were females. Smoking and diabetes mellitus were associated with a longer inpatient hospital stay. There was a significant difference in microbiology of abscesses in relation to size. Smaller abscesses (≤3.0 cm) predominantly had mixed anaerobes (54%), whereas larger abscesses had a dominance of Staphylococcus aureus (29%) and other aerobic microbes (33%) (P < 0.05). Seven percent of all abscesses had methicillin‐resistant S. aureus. Flucloxacillin was prescribed solely in majority of the cases (45%) with addition of suitable mixed anaerobic cover in 12% cases. Of the 85 abscesses, 58.8% were managed non‐operatively with antibiotics ± percutaneous drainage. Percutaneous aspiration had a shorter inpatient stay compared with patients who underwent operative management.ConclusionThis represents the first Australian study solely analysing non‐lactation breast abscess. Size was correlated significantly to characteristic bacteriology and empiric therapy should include both aerobic and anaerobic cover. The majority of non‐lactation breast abscesses can be managed non‐operatively with a combination of antibiotics and percutaneous aspiration.
Ectogenesis, abortion and a right to the death of the fetus
Authors: Räsänen Joona 
Published: October 2017

AbstractMany people believe that the abortion debate will end when at some point in the future it will be possible for fetuses to develop outside the womb. Ectogenesis, as this technology is called, would make possible to reconcile pro‐life and pro‐choice positions. That is because it is commonly believed that there is no right to the death of the fetus if it can be detached alive and gestated in an artificial womb. Recently Eric Mathison and Jeremy Davis defended this position, by arguing against three common arguments for a right to the death of the fetus. I claim that their arguments are mistaken. I argue that there is a right to the death of the fetus because gestating a fetus in an artificial womb when genetic parents refuse it violates their rights not to become a biological parent, their rights to genetic privacy and their property rights. The right to the death of the fetus, however, is not a woman's right but genetic parents’ collective right which only can be used together.
Re‐working mobilities: Emergent geographies of employment‐related mobility
Authors: Dorow Sara , Roseman Sharon R. , Cresswell Tim 
Published: October 2017

AbstractOver the last decade, an increasing number of geographers and other social science researchers have deployed the insights of the new mobilities paradigm to study work, labour, and employment. These insights include attention to the meanings, practices, and politics of work‐related movement as well as to multiple spatial and temporal scales and types of im/mobility for and at work. In a review of this literature, we find five different vantage points on “re‐working” mobility: articulations of labour migration with other forms of mobility; geometries of power in the daily journey to work; embodiment and affect in work‐related movement; mobility and labour across the life course; and co‐mobilities of workers, ideas, and things. We argue that on whole, a mobility lens offers a “critical phenomenology” of the dynamic relations between the everyday lifeworlds and broader political, social, and economic contexts of both paid and unpaid work. This is especially important as work involves ever more complex patterns and experiences of mobility and is more deeply entwined with the mobilities of other domains of social life. We conclude by considering the rich implications of “re‐working mobilities” for methodological diversity and for animating both mobilities studies and labour studies as critical geographical endeavors.
Human papillomavirus vaccination of adult women and risk of autoimmune and neurological diseases
Authors: Hviid A. , Svanström H. , Scheller N. M. , Grönlund O. , Pasternak B. , Arnheim‐Dahlström L. 
Published: October 2017

AbstractBackgroundSince 2006, human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines have been introduced in many countries worldwide. Whilst safety studies have been reassuring, focus has been on the primary target group, the young adolescent girls. However, it is also important to evaluate safety in adult women where background disease rates and safety issues could differ significantly.ObjectiveWe took advantage of the unique Danish and Swedish nationwide healthcare registers to conduct a cohort study comparing incidence rate ratios (RRs) of 45 preselected serious chronic diseases in quadrivalent HPV (qHPV)‐vaccinated and qHPV‐unvaccinated adult women 18–44 years of age.MethodsWe used Poisson regression to estimate RRs according to qHPV vaccination status with two‐sided 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs).ResultsThe study cohort comprised 3 126 790 women (1 195 865 [38%] Danish and 1 930 925 [62%] Swedish) followed for 16 386 459 person‐years. Vaccine uptake of at least one dose of qHPV vaccine was 8% in the cohort: 18% amongst Danish women and 2% amongst Swedish. We identified seven adverse events with statistically significant increased risks following vaccination—Hashimoto's thyroiditis, coeliac disease, localized lupus erythematosus, pemphigus vulgaris, Addison's disease, Raynaud's disease and other encephalitis, myelitis or encephalomyelitis. After taking multiple testing into account and conducting self‐controlled case series analyses, coeliac disease (RR 1.56 [95% confidence interval 1.29–1.89]) was the only remaining association.ConclusionUnmasking of conditions at vaccination visits is a plausible explanation for the increased risk associated with qHPV in this study because coeliac disease is underdiagnosed in Scandinavian populations. In conclusion, our study of serious adverse event rates in qHPV‐vaccinated and qHPV‐unvaccinated adult women 18–44 years of age did not raise any safety issues of concern.
Effectors involved in fungal–fungal interaction lead to a rare phenomenon of hyperbiotrophy in the tritrophic system biocontrol agent–powdery mildew–plant
Authors: Laur Joan , Ramakrishnan Gowsica Bojarajan , Labbé Caroline , Lefebvre François , Spanu Pietro D. , Bélanger Richard R. 
Published: October 2017

Summary

Tritrophic interactions involving a biocontrol agent, a pathogen and a plant have been analyzed predominantly from the perspective of the biocontrol agent. We have conducted the first comprehensive transcriptomic analysis of all three organisms in an effort to understand the elusive properties of Pseudozyma flocculosa in the context of its biocontrol activity against Blumeria graminis f.sp. hordei as it parasitizes Hordeum vulgare.

After inoculation of P. flocculosa, the tripartite interaction was monitored over time and samples collected for scanning electron microscopy and RNA sequencing.

Based on our observations, P. flocculosa indirectly parasitizes barley, albeit transiently, by diverting nutrients extracted by B. graminis from barley leaves through a process involving unique effectors. This brings novel evidence that such molecules can also influence fungal–fungal interactions. Their release is synchronized with a higher expression of powdery mildew haustorial effectors, a sharp decline in the photosynthetic machinery of barley and a developmental peak in P. flocculosa. The interaction culminates with a collapse of B. graminis haustoria, thereby stopping P. flocculosa growth, as barley plants show higher metabolic activity.

To conclude, our study has uncovered a complex and intricate phenomenon, described here as hyperbiotrophy, only achievable through the conjugated action of the three protagonists.
Predicted global warming scenarios impact on the mother plant to alter seed dormancy and germination behaviour inArabidopsis
Authors: Huang Z. , Footitt S. , Tang A. , Finch‐Savage W.E. 
Published: October 2017

AbstractSeed characteristics are key components of plant fitness that are influenced by temperature in their maternal environment, and temperature will change with global warming. To study the effect of such temperature changes,Arabidopsis thalianaplants were grown to produce seeds along a uniquely designed polyethylene tunnel having a thermal gradient reflecting local global warming predictions. Plants therefore experienced the same variations in temperature and light conditions but different mean temperatures. A range of seed‐related plant fitness estimates were measured. There were dramatic non‐linear temperature effects on the germination behaviour in two contrasting ecotypes. Maternal temperatures lower than 15–16 °C resulted in significantly greater primary dormancy. In addition, the impact of nitrate in the growing media on dormancy was shown only by seeds produced below 15–16 °C. However, there were no consistent effects on seed yield, number, or size. Effects on germination behaviour were shown to be a species characteristic responding to temperature and not time of year. Elevating temperature above this critical value during seed development has the potential to dramatically alter the timing of subsequent seed germination and the proportion entering the soil seed bank. This has potential consequences for the whole plant life cycle and species fitness.
Determination of constitutive parameters from a Taylor test using inverse analysis
Authors: Hernandez C. , Maranon A. 
Published: October 2017

AbstractIdentification of material constitutive parameters is critical for accurate representation of the mechanical behavior of materials at high strain rates. However, customary characterization procedures based on curve fitting of stress‐strain curves, in some cases, are not accurate when the mechanical response exhibits strain rate dependency. In this paper, an inverse characterization technique based on the Taylor impact test is proposed. The technique uses a data reduction operator based on line moments and genetic algorithm optimization to determine the optimum constitutive parameters. Material parameters for a low carbon steel associated with the Plastic Kinematic model were determined using the proposed method.
Protein Structure Facilitates High-Resolution Immunological Mapping
Authors: Zuverink Madison , Barbieri Joseph T. 
Published: October 2017

ABSTRACT
Select agents (SA) pose unique challenges for licensing vaccines and therapies. In the case of toxin-mediated diseases, HHS assigns guidelines for SA use, oversees vaccine and therapy development, and approves animal models and approaches to identify mechanisms for toxin neutralization. In this commentary, we discuss next-generation vaccines and therapies against ricin toxin and botulinum toxin, which are regulated SA toxins that utilize structure-based approaches for countermeasures to guide rapid response to future biothreats.
Unraveling the Self-Assembly of the
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
XcpQ Secretin Periplasmic Domain Provides New Molecular Insights into Type II Secretion System Secreton Architecture and Dynamics
Authors: Douzi Badreddine , Trinh Nhung T. T. , Michel-Souzy Sandra , Desmyter Aline , Ball Geneviève , Barbier Pascale , Kosta Artemis , Durand Eric , Forest Katrina T. , Cambillau Christian , Roussel Alain , Voulhoux Romé 
Published: October 2017

ABSTRACT

The type II secretion system (T2SS) releases large folded exoproteins across the envelope of many Gram-negative pathogens. This secretion process therefore requires specific gating, interacting, and dynamics properties mainly operated by a bipartite outer membrane channel called secretin. We have a good understanding of the structure-function relationship of the pore-forming C-terminal domain of secretins. In contrast, the high flexibility of their periplasmic N-terminal domain has been an obstacle in obtaining the detailed structural information required to uncover its molecular function. In
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
, the Xcp T2SS plays an important role in bacterial virulence by its capacity to deliver a large panel of toxins and degradative enzymes into the surrounding environment. Here, we revealed that the N-terminal domain of XcpQ secretin spontaneously self-assembled into a hexamer of dimers independently of its C-terminal domain. Furthermore, and by using multidisciplinary approaches, we elucidate the structural organization of the XcpQ N domain and demonstrate that secretin flexibility at interdimer interfaces is mandatory for its function.

IMPORTANCE
Bacterial secretins are large homooligomeric proteins constituting the outer membrane pore-forming element of several envelope-embedded nanomachines essential in bacterial survival and pathogenicity. They comprise a well-defined membrane-embedded C-terminal domain and a modular periplasmic N-terminal domain involved in substrate recruitment and connection with inner membrane components. We are studying the XcpQ secretin of the T2SS present in the pathogenic bacterium
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
. Our data highlight the ability of the XcpQ N-terminal domain to spontaneously oligomerize into a hexamer of dimers. Further
in vivo
experiments revealed that this domain adopts different conformations essential for the T2SS secretion process. These findings provide new insights into the functional understanding of bacterial T2SS secretins.
Insights from the Genome Sequence of
Mycobacterium lepraemurium
: Massive Gene Decay and Reductive Evolution
Authors: Benjak Andrej , Honap Tanvi P. , Avanzi Charlotte , Becerril-Villanueva Enrique , Estrada-García Iris , Rojas-Espinosa Oscar , Stone Anne C. , Cole Stewart T. 
Published: October 2017

ABSTRACT

Mycobacterium lepraemurium
is the causative agent of murine leprosy, a chronic, granulomatous disease similar to human leprosy. Due to the similar clinical manifestations of human and murine leprosy and the difficulty of growing both bacilli axenically,
Mycobacterium leprae
and
M. lepraemurium
were once thought to be closely related, although it was later suggested that
M. lepraemurium
might be related to
Mycobacterium avium
. In this study, the complete genome of
M. lepraemurium
was sequenced using a combination of PacBio and Illumina sequencing. Phylogenomic analyses confirmed that
M. lepraemurium
is a distinct species within the
M. avium
complex (MAC). The
M. lepraemurium
genome is 4.05 Mb in length, which is considerably smaller than other MAC genomes, and it comprises 2,682 functional genes and 1,139 pseudogenes, which indicates that
M. lepraemurium
has undergone genome reduction. An error-prone repair homologue of the DNA polymerase III α-subunit was found to be nonfunctional in
M. lepraemurium
, which might contribute to pseudogene formation due to the accumulation of mutations in nonessential genes.
M. lepraemurium
has retained the functionality of several genes thought to influence virulence among members of the MAC.

IMPORTANCE
Mycobacterium lepraemurium
seems to be evolving toward a minimal set of genes required for an obligatory intracellular lifestyle within its host, a niche seldom adopted by most mycobacteria, as they are free-living.
M. lepraemurium
could be used as a model to elucidate functions of genes shared with other members of the MAC. Its reduced gene set can be exploited for studying the essentiality of genes in related pathogenic species, which might lead to discovery of common virulence factors or clarify host-pathogen interactions.
M. lepraemurium
can be cultivated
in vitro
only under specific conditions and even then with difficulty. Elucidating the metabolic (in)capabilities of
M. lepraemurium
will help develop suitable axenic media and facilitate genetic studies.