bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Investigating the green impact of Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma
Authors: Chugani Nashmi , Kumar Vikas , Garza-Reyes Jose Arturo , Rocha-Lona Luis , Upadhyay Arvind 
Published: February 2017

PurposeThe academic literature and research lines exploring the effect of quality improvement methods on environmental performance still remain in early stages. The purpose of this paper is therefore to investigate, through a systematic review of the existing academic literature, the environmental (green) impact of using quality and operations improvement methods such as Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma. This includes the impact on energy saving and the usage of natural resources.Design/methodology/approachThis study follows a systematic literature review approach through which it analyses research papers published in top 16 operations and quality management journals. No specific time frame was established, but a set of keywords were used to short-list the articles. A sample of 70 articles was finally short-listed and analysed to provide a discussion on environmental concerns related to Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma.FindingsThe comprehensive review of short-listed articles indicates that both Lean and Six Sigma can be considered effective methods to support the conservation of resources, combat global warming and saving energy. Various scholars provide evidence of this, and as such, organisations should not only consider these methods to manage quality and improve operational performance but also meet environmental regulations. A set of research questions that demands further investigation has also been proposed based on the findings of this research.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited to a sample of 70 articles collected from top 16 operations and quality management journals. The search of journals is also limited to a set of key words (“Lean”, “Green”, “Six Sigma”, “environment”, “sustainable” and “sustainability”) used to short-list the sample size.Practical implicationsThe study shows that organisations can consider the adoption of Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma to meet environmental regulations, save costs and also meet quality management standards. This will contribute in helping organisations to formulate more effective and inclusive strategies which do not only consider the quality and operational dimensions but also the environmental dimension.Originality/valueLiterature exploring the environmental/green impact of quality management methods commonly used in industry is limited. There is also a lack of studies aiming to investigate the green impact of Lean and Six Sigma in top operations and quality management journals. The study focusing on investigating the green impact of Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma methods altogether is also a research first of its kind.
Does corruption matter for economic development? Long run evidence from Bangladesh
Authors: Pulok Mohammad Habibullah , Ahmed Moin Uddin 
Published: February 2017

Purpose
Despite remarkable economic growth in the last two decades, corruption is a “way of life” in Bangladesh. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the long run relationship between economic development and corruption in Bangladesh over 1984-2013.

Design/methodology/approach
This study employs autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test method to examine the long run relationship or cointegration between corruption and per capita real GDP in Bangladesh using annual time series data. International Country Risk Guide’s (ICRG) corruption index is used as the proxy to measure the degree of corruption.

Findings
The results of ARDL bounds test confirm that there exists a long run association between corruption and economic development in Bangladesh. Findings from the long run estimation provide evidence of negative impact of corruption on economic development. The negative value of the error correction term in the short model reinforces the existence of long run relationship.

Originality/value
Using multivariate time series approach, this paper contributes to corruption literature by investigating the long run relation between corruption and economic development in Bangladesh. Bangladesh would be able to accelerate its economic development further by reducing the level of corruption through institutional reforms and raising public awareness. Most importantly, government should focus on identifying and abolishing laws and programmes promoting corruption.
Information technology’s impacts on productivity and welfare: a review
Authors: Tisdell Clem 
Published: February 2017

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to outline and examine existing economic findings about the effects of information and communication technology on economic productivity, welfare and social change.

Design/methodology/approach
Initially, existing findings about consequences of ICT for macro-level economic activity and productivity are outlined, and then this is correspondingly done for firms and for industries before a variety of welfare and social consequences of ICT are discussed. The industry-level discussion includes empirical data as well as analytical material.

Findings
Most studies indicate that ICT has significantly added to GDP and has been growth enhancing but these effects vary considerably between economies. The elasticity of aggregate production in relation to investment in ICT has risen with the passage of time. Reasons for this are suggested. The contribution of value added to the output of different industries varies substantially. At the micro-economic level, it is shown how ICT can increase technical and allocative efficiency, and how it can increase consumers’ surplus and producers’ surplus by lowering market transaction costs. Socioeconomic inequalities and concerns arising from the supply of e-commodities are discussed.

Originality/value
Provides a comprehensive but short overview of economic findings about the impact of ICT and brings attention to socioeconomic issues that have been overlooked or downplayed in that discussion. Includes new micro-economic analysis of the distributional impact of ICT and indicates areas requiring social policy intervention.
Healthy lifestyles to prevent dementia and reduce dementia symptoms
Authors: Hogervorst Eef 
Published: February 2017

Purpose
Dementia is a growing problem worldwide, due to an ageing population. It has significant human and economic costs. There is no effective medical treatment. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach
Using earlier reviews, the author discussed the difference between dementia and cognitive ageing and the different types of dementia, in terms of manifestation and pathology. The author reviewed non-modifiable risk factors for dementia, such as age, gender, genetics and education. Education can possibly have lifelong protective effects, as it may promote cognitive reserve. This paper focussed on lifestyle interventions to further increase brain reserve capacity. Findings from earlier reviews were summarised to provide guidelines for policymakers and practioners.

Findings
The reviews suggested that most nutritional approaches may have limited effectiveness, and should be implemented in midlife, before dementia symptoms are present and probably only in people who are actually nutritionally deficient. The author found a reasonable positive evidence base of engagement in cognitive and physical activities to prevent dementia, which may also help reduce symptoms of dementia.

Practical implications
From the studies reviewed, it was suggested that keeping physically and mentally active may help in all stages of life to prevent, but also reduce dementia symptoms. A focus on nutrition and treating heart disease risk factors is possibly limited to midlife, or before dementia symptoms are present.

Originality/value
The author used an evidence based approach to review which lifestyle interventions could help prevent dementia or reduce dementia symptoms. The main outcome of this paper was that stage of life and ability (dementia present or not) may interact with success of the intervention.
Living well in later life in Scotland
Authors: Hendry Anne 
Published: February 2017

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe the development, implementation and early impact of a national action plan for active and healthy ageing in Scotland.

Design/methodology/approach
The Joint Improvement Team, NHS Health Scotland, the Scottish Government and the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (ALLIANCE) co-produced the action plan with older people from the Scottish Older People’s Assembly. Together they supported partnerships to embed the action plan as an important element of the reshaping care for older people transformation programme in Scotland.

Findings
A cross-sector improvement network supported health, housing and care partnerships to use a £300 million Change Fund to implement evidence based preventative approaches to enable older people to live well. Older people in Scotland spent over two million days at home than would have been expected based on previous balance of care and impact of ageing.

Practical implications
Improving the health and wellbeing of older people is not just the responsibility of health and social care services. Enabling older people to live independent, active and fulfilling lives requires coordinated effort that spans national and local government policy areas, mobilises all sectors of society, and involves all health and care disciplines. Success starts with listening to what matters to older people, and working together, and with older people and local communities, to make that a reality.

Originality/value
This case study from Scotland offers transferable learning for other systems who have an ageing population and an ambitions to enable them to live well in later life.
Exploring the importance of discretionary mobility in later life
Authors: Musselwhite Charles 
Published: February 2017

Purpose
Travel and mobility for older people has typically focussed on the practical benefits to the individual, for example, in meeting utilitarian needs of shopping, appointments and staying connected to family and friends. However, previous research has hinted that travel for its own sake, to get out and about and feel and experience mobility, may be just as important for older people and is especially missed when individuals give-up driving. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper examines travel for its own sake, usually referred to as discretionary travel, interviewing 20 older people in each of three different contexts: for drivers, for community transport users and for non-drivers who receive lifts from family and friends.

Findings
Older people not only enjoy discretionary travel, but also feel it is beneficial to their health and wellbeing. The car and especially driving, is seen as the best way to fulfil discretionary travel. Community transport users do fulfil discretionary travel needs but these are over formalised and lack spontaneity affecting feelings of control and identity. Receiving lifts from family and friends can often result in older people feeling a burden to the providers of the lifts especially when travel is viewed as discretionary.

Practical implications
More needs to be done to ensure discretionary travel needs are met for those without cars, highlighting the importance of such travel to community transport providers and helping reduce the feeling of being a burden to family and friends.

Originality/value
Policy, practice and research has tended to focus on transport as a means to an end. However, older people themselves value mobility just as much for its own sake and just to view nature. Such discretionary reasons for mobility are actually very important for health and wellbeing of older people and need more attention.
Density‐dependent selection on mate search and evolution of Allee effects
Authors: Berec Luděk , Kramer Andrew M. , Bernhauerová Veronika , Drake John M. 
Published: February 2017

Summary

Sexually reproducing organisms require males and females to find each other. Increased difficulty of females finding mates as male density declines is the most frequently reported mechanism of Allee effects in animals. Evolving more effective mate search may alleviate Allee effects, but may depend on density regimes a population experiences. In particular, high‐density populations may evolve mechanisms that induce Allee effects which become detrimental when populations are reduced and maintained at a low density.

We develop an individual‐based, eco‐genetic model to study how mating systems and fitness trade‐offs interact with changes in population density to drive evolution of the rate at which males or females search for mates. Finite mate search rate triggers Allee effects in our model and we explore how these Allee effects respond to such evolution.

We allow a population to adapt to several population density regimes and examine whether high‐density populations are likely to reverse adaptations attained at low densities. We find density‐dependent selection in most of scenarios, leading to search rates that result in lower Allee thresholds in populations kept at lower densities. This mainly occurs when fecundity costs are imposed on mate search, and provides an explanation for why Allee effects are often observed in anthropogenically rare species.

Optimizing selection, where the attained trait value minimizes the Allee threshold independent of population density, depended on the trade‐off between search and survival, combined with monogamy when females were searching. Other scenarios led to runaway selection on the mate search rate, including evolutionary suicide. Trade‐offs involved in mate search may thus be crucial to determining how density influences the evolution of Allee effects.

Previous studies did not examine evolution of a trait related to the strength of Allee effects under density variation. We emphasize the crucial role that mating systems, fitness trade‐offs and the evolving sex have in determining the density threshold for population persistence, in particular since evolution need not always take the Allee threshold to its minimum value.
‘Betwixt and between’; liminality in recovery stories from people with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) or chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)
Authors: Brown Brian , Huszar Kate , Chapman Rosemary 
Published: February 2017

AbstractThis paper explores experiences of 16 people claiming to have recovered from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) using the concept of liminality. Liminality describes the status of those falling between socially recognised and medically sanctioned categories, and illuminates both the experience of illness and the process of recovery from ME/CFS. The liminality experienced during illness was akin to that described by Turner with a degree of communitas among sufferers. As recovery progressed, participants stressed the percentage to which they had improved, and compared themselves with peers and themselves prior to the illness. Recovery did not mean transition into a post‐liminal phase, but involved a new liminality, characterised by straddling boundaries between illness and wellness. Participants continued strategies such as rest, pacing and meditation. This second liminal state included difficulty in communicating the experience convincingly, and estrangement from the ME/CFS community. Thus, recoverees moved from the liminality of illness to a second, and less legible state of sustained liminality in recovery, described as having one foot in the ill world, one foot in the well world. This suggests that more needs to be understood about the recovery experience to assist those making the transition toward wellness.
The Effect of Decomposition on the Efficacy of Biometrics for Positive Identification
Authors: Sauerwein Kelly , Saul Tiffany B. , Steadman Dawnie Wolfe , Boehnen Chris B. 
Published: February 2017

AbstractBiometrics, unique measurable physiological and behavioral characteristics, are used to identify individuals in a variety of scenarios, including forensic investigations. However, data on the longevity of these indicators are incomplete. This study demonstrated that iris and fingerprint biometric data can be obtained up to four days postmortem in warmer seasons and 50 + days in the winter. It has been generally believed, but never studied, that iris recognition is only obtainable within the first 24 hours after death. However, this study showed that they remain viable for longer (2–34 days) depending upon the environmental conditions. Temperature, precipitation, insects, and scavenger activity were the primary factors affecting the retention of biometrics in decomposing human remains. While this study is an initial step in determining the utility of physiological biometrics across postmortem time, biometric research has the potential to make important contributions to human identification and the law enforcement, military, and medicolegal communities.
In vivo observation of metamorphosis of Plodia interpunctella Hübner using three‐dimensional optical coherence tomography
Authors: Choi Kwang Shik , Wijesinghe Ruchire Eranga , Lee Changho , Lee Seung‐Yeol , Jung Hee‐Young , Jeon Mansik , Kim Jeehyun 
Published: February 2017

AbstractMorphological assessment and three‐dimensional reconstructions of internal structures of Plodia interpunctella Hübner during metamorphosis stages were experimentally demonstrated using optical coherence tomography (OCT) for the first time. The conventional, complex sectioning methods were significantly simplified owing to the non‐invasive three‐dimensional imaging capability of OCT. Further, this study demonstrates the use of OCT as a non‐invasive detection tool for in vivo morphological observation of metamorphosis stages to gain a better understanding about the growth of internal organs, which can be considered a useful discovery in the field of entomology. Thus, the metamorphosis stages starting from the larva, three pupa stages to the adult stage were periodically visualized to examine the development of internal organs at each specific stage. This study essentially offers real‐time morphological information by non‐destructive observation of the organism and can also be useful for the investigation of other agricultural pests.
Prevalence of in‐hospital nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug exposure in patients with a primary diagnosis of heart failure
Authors: Alvarez Paulino A. , Putney David , Ogunti Richard , Puppala Mamta , Ganduglia Cecilia , Torre‐Amione Guillermo , Schutt Robert , Wong Stephen T. C. , Estep Jerry D. 
Published: February 2017

SummaryAimTo determine the prevalence of in‐hospital nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug (NSAID) exposure and associated outcomes in patients admitted with a primary diagnosis of heart failure.MethodsWe performed a propensity‐matched cohort analysis of patients admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital System with a primary diagnosis of heart failure according to the International Classification of Diseases‐9‐Clinical Modification (ICD‐9‐CM) from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2014.ResultsOf the 9742 patients admitted with a primary diagnosis of heart failure, 384 patients (3.9%) were exposed to NSAID. After applying propensity scores we matched 305 NSAID exposed with 915 unexposed patients. Patients with in‐hospital NSAID exposure had a longer length of stay (7.0±8.8 days vs 6.1±8.5; P=.003) and increased prevalence of worsening renal function (34.4% vs 27.9%; P=.030). There were not statically significant differences in in‐hospital mortality rate or 30‐day all‐cause readmission rate.ConclusionExposure to NSAID in patients admitted with a primary diagnosis of heart failure was low but was associated with adverse outcomes including longer length of stay and higher prevalence or worsening renal function.
Does psychotherapy work? An umbrella review of meta‐analyses of randomized controlled trials
Authors: Dragioti E. , Karathanos V. , Gerdle B. , Evangelou E. 
Published: February 2017

ObjectiveTo map and evaluate the evidence across meta‐analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of psychotherapies for various outcomes.MethodsWe identified 173 eligible studies, including 247 meta‐analyses that synthesized data from 5157 RCTs via a systematic search from inception to December 2016 in the PubMed, PsycINFO and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. We calculated summary effects using random‐effects models, and we assessed between‐study heterogeneity. We estimated whether large studies had significantly more conservative results compared to smaller studies (small‐study effects) and whether the observed positive studies were more than expected by chance. Finally, we assessed the credibility of the evidence using several criteria.ResultsOne hundred and ninety‐nine meta‐analyses were significant at P‐value ≤ 0.05, and almost all (n = 196) favoured psychotherapy. Large and very large heterogeneity was observed in 130 meta‐analyses. Evidence for small‐study effects was found in 72 meta‐analyses, while 95 had evidence of excess of significant findings. Only 16 (7%) provided convincing evidence that psychotherapy is effective. These pertained to cognitive behavioural therapy (n = 6), meditation therapy (n = 1), cognitive remediation (n = 1), counselling (n = 1) and mixed types of psychotherapies (n = 7).ConclusionsAlthough almost 80% meta‐analyses reported a nominally statistically significant finding favouring psychotherapy, only a few meta‐analyses provided convincing evidence without biases.
Review: Genetic research on alcohol use outcomes in African American populations: A review of the literature, associated challenges, and implications
Authors: Dick Danielle M. , Barr Peter , Guy Mignonne , Nasim Aashir , Scott Denise 
Published: February 2017

Background and ObjectivesThere have been remarkable advances in understanding genetic influences on complex traits; however, individuals of African descent have been underrepresented in genetic research.MethodsWe review the limitations of existing genetic research on alcohol phenotypes in African Americans (AA) including both twin and gene identification studies, possible reasons for underrepresentation of AAs in genetic research, the implications of the lack of racially diverse samples, and special considerations regarding conducting genetic research in AA populations.ResultsThere is a marked absence of large‐scale AA twin studies so little is known about the genetic epidemiology of alcohol use and problems among AAs. Individuals of African descent have also been underrepresented in gene identification efforts; however, there have been recent efforts to enhance representation. It remains unknown the extent to which genetic variants associated with alcohol use outcomes in individuals of European and African descent will be shared. Efforts to increase representation must be accompanied by careful attention to the ethical, legal, and social implications of genetic research. This is particularly true for AAs due to the history of abuse by the biomedical community and the persistent racial discrimination targeting this population.Conclusions and Scientific SignificanceLack of representation in genetic studies limits our understanding of the etiological factors that contribute to substance use and psychiatric outcomes in populations of African descent and has the potential to further perpetuate health disparities. Involving individuals of diverse ancestry in discussions about genetic research will be critical to ensure that all populations benefit equally from genetic advances. (Am J Addict 2017;26:486–493)