bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Professional application projects: work-based learning in the curriculum
Authors: Toledano-O’Farrill Ruben 
Published: January 2017

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the experience in a Mexican private higher education institution of implementing credit-bearing student placements and projects (interventions) in organizations, as a mandatory part of the curriculum for all undergraduates. The university-wide program, called professional application projects (PAPs) has been running for ten years and has two main aims: to develop work-based professional skills in students and to deliver services to organizations and communities of diverse types. All undergraduate students get involved in PAP when they have completed 70 percent of the required program credits. This amounts to approximately 2,000 students per year. The paper reports the results of an investigation into the learning outcomes of PAPs in the Business School, which comprises six undergraduate programs, a center for liaisons with businesses, and a center for management of technology and innovation.

Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative analysis of students’ final reports of their PAP experience, from the period 2015-2016 was done.

Findings
The report analyses and clusters the main categories of learning outcomes reported by students. The analysis shows that the PAP experience has been mostly successful in terms of student learning.

Originality/value
There has been scarce reporting of the results of PAP at the reported institution, or of other similar experiences of work-based learning in Mexico on this scale.
Monitoring trends in research student experience
Authors: Grebennikov Leonid , Shah Mahsood 
Published: January 2017

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present approaches effectively used by a large multi-campus Australian university to improve the research student experience as a direct result of their feedback. These approaches include: identifying trends in the research student experience and areas needing improvement through the Research Student Satisfaction Survey conducted by the University in 2009, 2011 and 2013; prioritising and implementing improvement solutions; and monitoring the improvement actions to measure their efficiency based on student feedback, and to identify areas warranting further improvement attention.

Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative study was undertaken with research students.

Findings
The study outlines the need for universities to have a systematic approach in measuring and enhancing the experience of research students. Systematic approach enables the university to take timely action to enhance student experience.

Research limitations/implications
Undertaking analysis of the survey at faculty or school level. Increased accountability on Associate Deans (Research) to implement improvements at faculty level.

Originality/value
The paper is based on ten years of study in a large multi-campus university.
Local retailers’ perspectives on social responsibility
Authors: Razalan Danielle Marie , Bickle Marianne C. , Park Joohyung , Brosdahl Deborah 
Published: January 2017

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify the types of social responsibility actions that small local retailers implement in their local community and to explore their underlying motivations and perceived benefits.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative research method is used to explore small local retailers’ social responsibility practices and underlying motivations. Owners/managers of small apparel retailers in the USA were interviewed and their responses transcribed and analyzed.FindingsFindings highlight that local retailers are active in giving back to their community using various means from monetary donations to promotion of community events. Such contributions to their local community are largely driven by their affection for the community, and the motivation is to maintain a good reputation. It was also found that episodes of giving were also triggered externally by customers, local organizations, and local events. Small retailers’ social responsibility contributions to the community are typically not undertaken in an effort to stimulate sales, profits and/or customer traffic. Rather, local retailers find their experiences enjoyable and their contributions build a sense of connection to the community. These retailers enjoy an extra sense of enrichment and perceive social benefits accrued from actively engaging in social responsibility within the community.Originality/valueMuch has been written about social responsibility from a manufacturing and large retailer viewpoint, but there is a dearth of information on small local retailers. This study explores the understanding of small businesses’ social responsibility practices from a local retail perspective and provides valuable insights about retailers approach to social responsibility in relation to their local community.
Towards digital loyalty programs: insights from customer medium preference segmentation
Authors: Ieva Marco , Ziliani Cristina 
Published: January 2017

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify patterns of medium preference for loyalty programs (LPs) among members to support the case for segmenting customers based on their medium preference.

Design/methodology/approach
A survey of nearly 2,000 customers who are enrolled in at least one supermarket LP was employed. LP members are segmented based on a latent class clustering model and then profiled in terms of socio-demographic variables by means of a multinomial logit regression model.

Findings
Medium preference is heterogeneous and differs at the customer segment and at the LP touchpoint level. Five segments emerge which display different medium preference patterns. LP medium preference is associated with age, gender, affluency and number of different LPs the customer is enrolled in.

Practical implications
Retailers, e-tailers and brands can benefit from this customer segmentation when faced with the challenges of adding online features or migrating their LPs online. Marketers should differentiate their investment in online and offline LP touchpoints according to the medium preference for each LP touchpoint of the customer segments of interest.

Originality/value
Retailers, e-tailers and brands are today introducing online marketing strategies and tactics, such as LPs, that have been traditionally used offline. So far, however, they have failed to answer the question whether online and offline LPs and related touchpoints have the same preference among consumers. Literature on LPs has not explored customer preference for the LP medium or the consumer characteristics related to medium preference. This work is unique in providing an overview of medium preference for LPs and their touchpoints.
Management of constraint generators in fashion store design processes
Authors: Münster Mia Borch , Haug Anders 
Published: January 2017

Purpose
Retail design concepts are complex designs meeting functional and aesthetic demands from various constraint generators. However, the literature on this topic is sparse and offers only little support for store designers to deal with such challenges. To address this issue, the purpose of this paper is to identify the most important constraint generators, investigating the types of constraints they generate, and providing guidelines for how to deal with constraint elicitation.

Design/methodology/approach
The three contributions mentioned above are developed through discussions of the literature and eight case studies of fashion store design projects.

Findings
The paper shows that the influence of the constraint generators decreases during the design process except for supplier-generated constraints, which increase in the final stages of the design process. The paper argues that constraints should be elicited close to their occurrence, and that doing so requires a solid understanding of relevant constraint generators.

Research limitations/implications
The paper provides a structured basis for further research and identifies areas warranting further study. Although, the paper’s focus is on fashion store design, the findings may, to some degree, be applicable to other types of store design projects.

Practical implications
The understandings provided by this paper may help designers to deal proactively with constraints, reducing the use of resources to alter design proposals.

Originality/value
The paper: defines the most important constraint generators from the perspective of retail store designers, clarifies the types of constraints they generate, and provides guidelines for how to deal with constraint elicitation.
Measuring fairness in franchisor-franchisee relationship: a confirmatory approach
Authors: Shaikh Ateeque , Biswas Saswata Narayan , Yadav Vanita , Mishra Debiprasad 
Published: January 2017

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop, test and validate a measure of fairness in the context of franchisor-franchisee relationship and test for the dimensionality of fairness.Design/methodology/approachThe authors surveyed 300 franchisees of a large-scale franchisor in India. The authors employ confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to analyse the data.FindingsThe authors tested four models of the fairness construct through CFA using structural equation modelling. The three-factor corrected model of the fairness construct exhibits comparatively better goodness of fit indices as compared to the other correlated models of the fairness construct. It clears the threshold level of validity and reliability test. The findings of the study suggest that the factor structure of fairness is three-factor correlated model with aspects of procedural fairness and informational fairness getting subsumed into one construct.Research limitations/implicationsFactor structure of fairness construct differs with earlier empirical research findings with both interpersonal fairness and informational fairness subsuming into each other to form one construct.Practical implicationsThis measure can be utilized by franchisee managers to track perceptions of fairness among franchisees to manage the franchise relationship in a better way. Franchisees expect information sharing from the franchisor and not the representative of the franchisor.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to develop a valid and reliable measure of fairness construct in the context of franchise relationship. This study also identifies factor structure of fairness construct.
Competitor phenology as a social cue in breeding site selection
Authors: Samplonius Jelmer M. , Both Christiaan 
Published: January 2017

Summary

Predicting habitat quality is a major challenge for animals selecting a breeding patch, because it affects reproductive success. Breeding site selection may be based on previous experience, or on social information from the density and success of competitors with an earlier phenology.

Variation in animal breeding phenology is often correlated with variation in habitat quality. Generally, animals breed earlier in high‐quality habitats that allow them to reach a nutritional threshold required for breeding earlier or avoid nest predation. In addition, habitat quality may affect phenological overlap between species and thereby interspecific competition. Therefore, we hypothesized that competitor breeding phenology can be used as social cue by settling migrants to locate high‐quality breeding sites.

To test this hypothesis, we experimentally advanced and delayed hatching phenology of two resident tit species on the level of study plots and studied male and female settlement patterns of migratory pied flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca. The manipulations were assigned at random in two consecutive years, and treatments were swapped between years in sites that were used in both years.

In both years, males settled in equal numbers across treatments, but later arriving females avoided pairing with males in delayed phenology plots. Moreover, male pairing probability declined strongly with arrival date on the breeding grounds.

Our results demonstrate that competitor phenology may be used to assess habitat quality by settling migrants, but we cannot pinpoint the exact mechanism (e.g. resource quality, predation pressure or competition) that has given rise to this pattern.

In addition, we show that opposing selection pressures for arrival timing may give rise to different social information availabilities between sexes. We discuss our findings in the context of climate warming, social information use and the evolution of protandry in migratory animals.
The importance of trees for woody pasture bird diversity and effects of the European Union's tree density policy
Authors: Jakobsson Simon , Lindborg Regina 
Published: January 2017

Summary

Recent reforms in the Common Agricultural Policy aim for a greening of the subsidy system with potential improvements for biodiversity conservation. As part of that process, the tree density limit for pastures to qualify for European Union subsidies has been increased from 50 to 100 trees per hectare. However, recent studies show that the high biodiversity values of these habitats may be threatened by these limits, highlighting the need for policy improvements. Still, little is known about the direct effects of tree density limitations on bird communities in woody pastures.

We investigated how bird diversity and species composition are affected by tree density in 49 Swedish woody pastures along a gradient of 4–214 trees per hectare. We recorded bird communities, tree density and stand structure estimates in the field and estimated forest cover in the surrounding landscape from aerial photos. Using generalised additive models and redundancy analysis, we analysed how bird territorial species richness, bird abundance and species composition are affected by tree density, taking into account other local and landscape scale explanatory variables.

Tree density had a significant positive effect on bird species richness at low tree densities and species richness saturated at approximately 50 trees per hectare. Shrub density had a significant positive linear effect on both bird species richness and abundance. Tree and shrub density were also the major drivers of bird community composition, with secondary effects of tree species diversity and landscape forest cover.

Policy implications. Our results show that tree density is not the limiting factor, but rather a driver of bird diversity and species composition in woody pastures and that tree density limits may fail to capture the whole range of biological values. To improve policy recommendations, we therefore stress the importance of considering additional social–ecological drivers associated to management quality, e.g. taking into account moral and cultural motivations among farmers, to preserve biodiversity in woody pastures.
Seasonal variation in the biocontrol efficiency of bacterial wilt is driven by temperature‐mediated changes in bacterial competitive interactions
Authors: Wei Zhong , Huang Jianfeng , Yang Tianjie , Jousset Alexandre , Xu Yangchun , Shen Qirong , Friman Ville‐Petri 
Published: January 2017

Summary

Microbe‐based biocontrol applications hold the potential to become an efficient way to control plant pathogen disease outbreaks in the future. However, their efficiency is still very variable, which could be due to their sensitivity to the abiotic environmental conditions.

Here, we assessed how environmental temperature variation correlates with ability of Ralstonia pickettii, an endophytic bacterial biocontrol agent, to suppress the Ralstonia solanacearum pathogen during different tomato crop seasons in China.

We found that suppression of the pathogen was highest when the seasonal mean temperatures were around 20 °C and rapidly decreased with increasing mean crop season temperatures. Interestingly, low levels of disease incidence did not correlate with low pathogen or high biocontrol agent absolute densities. Instead, the biocontrol to pathogen density ratio was a more important predictor of disease incidence levels between different crop seasons. To understand this mechanistically, we measured the growth and strength of competition between the biocontrol agent and the pathogen over a naturally occurring temperature gradient in vitro. We found that the biocontrol strain grew relatively faster at low temperature ranges, and the pathogen at high temperature ranges, and that similar to field experiments, pathogen suppression peaked at 20 °C.

Together, our results suggest that temperature‐mediated changes in the strength of bacterial competition could potentially explain the variable R. solanacearum biocontrol outcomes between different crop seasons in China.

Synthesis and applications. Our results suggest that abiotic environmental conditions, such as temperature, can affect the efficacy of biocontrol applications. Thus, in order to develop more consistent biocontrol applications in the future, we might need to find and isolate bacterial strains that can retain their functionality regardless of the changing environmental conditions.
Plant functional connectivity – integrating landscape structure and effective dispersal
Authors: Auffret Alistair G. , Rico Yessica , Bullock James M. , Hooftman Danny A. P. , Pakeman Robin J. , Soons Merel B. , Suárez‐Esteban Alberto , Traveset Anna , Wagner Helene H. , Cousins Sara A. O. 
Published: January 2017

Summary

Dispersal is essential for species to survive the threats of habitat destruction and climate change. Combining descriptions of dispersal ability with those of landscape structure, the concept of functional connectivity has been popular for understanding and predicting species’ spatial responses to environmental change.

Following recent advances, the functional connectivity concept is now able to move beyond landscape structure to consider more explicitly how other external factors such as climate and resources affect species movement. We argue that these factors, in addition to a consideration of the complete dispersal process, are critical for an accurate understanding of functional connectivity for plant species in response to environmental change.

We use recent advances in dispersal, landscape and molecular ecology to describe how a range of external factors can influence effective dispersal in plant species, and how the resulting functional connectivity can be assessed.

Synthesis. We define plant functional connectivity as the effective dispersal of propagules or pollen among habitat patches in a landscape. Plant functional connectivity is determined by a combination of landscape structure, interactions between plant, environment and dispersal vectors, and the successful establishment of individuals. We hope that this consolidation of recent research will help focus future connectivity research and conservation.
The sensitivity of head and neck carcinoma cells to statins is related to the expression of their Ras expression status, and statin‐induced apoptosis is mediated via suppression of the Ras/ERK and Ras/mTOR pathways
Authors: Tsubaki Masanobu , Fujiwara Daichiro , Takeda Tomoya , Kino Toshiki , Tomonari Yoshika , Itoh Tatsuki , Imano Motohiro , Satou Takao , Sakaguchi Katsuhiko , Nishida Shozo 
Published: January 2017

SummaryStatins induce apoptosis of tumour cells by inhibiting the prenylation of small G‐proteins. However, the details of the apoptosis‐inducing mechanisms remain poorly understood. The present study showed that the induction of apoptosis by statins in four different human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cell lines, HSC‐3, HEp‐2, Ca9‐22, and SAS cells was mediated by increased caspase‐3 activity. Statins induced apoptosis by the suppression of geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate biosynthesis. Furthermore, statins decreased the levels of phosphorylated ERK and mTOR by inhibiting the membrane localization of Ras and enhancing Bim expression in HSC‐3 and HEp‐2 cells. We also found that in all the cell types analyzed, the IC50 values for fluvastatin and simvastatin were highest in HEp‐2 cells. In addition, HSC‐3, Ca9‐22, and SAS cells had higher Ras expression and membrane localization, higher activation of ERK1/2 and mTOR, and lower levels of Bim expression than HEp‐2 cells. Our results indicate that statins induce apoptosis by increasing the activation of caspase‐3 and by enhancing Bim expression through inhibition of the Ras/ERK and Ras/mTOR pathways. Furthermore, the sensitivity of HNSCC cells to statin treatment was closely related to Ras expression and prenylation levels, indicating that statins may act more effectively against tumours with high Ras expression and Ras‐variability. Therefore, our findings support the use of statins as potential anticancer agents.
Health Benefits of Purple Corn (Zea mays L.) Phenolic Compounds
Authors: Lao Fei , Sigurdson Gregory T. , Giusti M. Mónica 
Published: January 2017

AbstractPurple corn (Zea mays L.), a grain with one of the deepest shades in the plant kingdom, has caught the attention of the food industry as it could serve as a source for alternatives to synthetic colorants. Also being rich in phenolic compounds with potential health‐promoting properties, purple corn is becoming a rising star in the novel ingredients market. Although having been widely advertised as a “healthy” food, the available information on purple corn health benefits has not yet been well reviewed and summarized. In this review, we present compositional information focused on the potential functional phenolic compounds correlated to health‐promoting effects. Studies evaluating potential health‐benefitting properties, including in vitro tests, cell models, animal and human trials, are also discussed. This paper emphasizes research using purple corn, or its extracts, but some other plant sources with similar phenolic composition to purple corn are also mentioned. Dosage and toxicity of purple corn studies are also reviewed. Purple corn phenolic compounds have been shown in numerous studies to have potent antioxidant, anti‐inflammatory, antimutagenic, anticarcinogenic, and anti‐angiogenesis properties. They were also found to ameliorate lifestyle diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, hyperglycemia, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases, based on their strong antioxidant power involving biochemical regulation amelioration. With promising evidence from cell and animal studies, this rich source of health‐promoting compounds warrants additional attention to better understand its potential contributions to human health.