bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Governance for maternal and neonatal health
Authors: Crabtree Susan , Tolley Hilary Clare 
Published: January 2018

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report on a postdoctoral research study examining the importance of multi-level leadership and health governance for ensuring the implementation of national and provincial health sector strategies that aim to improve maternal and neonatal health (MNH) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Design/methodology/approach
A descriptive-interpretive qualitative, institutional approach was undertaken to explore the impact of provincial and district governance mechanisms on the delivery of MNH services in two districts in East New Britain Province (ENBP), Papua New Guinea (PNG). Data were collected from 12 key informants. Informants were selected on the basis of their direct involvement in health system management and deployment of health at provincial and district health governance levels.

Findings
The analysis revealed alignment between global strategies and national and provincial policy, suboptimal provincial government support related to implementation of policy, divergent data between districts and a disconnect between the local governance mechanisms and a donor-funded initiative for raising midwifery education.

Research limitations/implications
This qualitative study was limited by the small sample size and does not claim to be representative of ENBP or other provinces in PNG.

Originality/value
This paper contributes empirical evidence to the literature on health policy, leadership and governance for MNH, by recognising and exploring the formal and informal rules at play in a given context, and examining how they are made, changed, monitored and enforced. These insights are critical to understanding how the system actually functions (or not) to implement MNH strategies in LMICs.
Hospital-supplier integration and hospital performance: evidence from Saudi Arabia
Authors: Alshahrani Saad , Rahman Shams , Chan Caroline 
Published: January 2018

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive conceptual model for the impact of hospital-supplier integration on the overall performance of healthcare organisations. It also investigates the moderating role of lean practices between hospital-supplier integration and hospital performance.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 498 public and private hospitals in Saudi Arabia using a survey. Structural equation modelling was used for data analysis.FindingsThe results indicate that hospital-supplier integration has a positive impact on the hospital performance. These effects are even more notable when adopting lean practices in the hospitals.Research limitations/implicationsThe data were collected from one developing country, namely Saudi Arabia. Thus, the findings may be relevant to the Saudi context but not those of other developing countries. Second, the data were collected from the hospitals’ end but not from the suppliers, so the latter’s perspectives on the themes covered here are not known. Future research may investigate the validity of the model in various developing countries whose healthcare systems have different characteristics, and the relationships between hospitals and their suppliers may follow different governance models.Practical implicationsThe developed model and results will help hospitals in the Saudi health system to make better decisions on managing their logistics and supply partners.Originality/valueThis study extends the current research by developing a model that highlights the impact of hospital-supplier integration on the overall performance of healthcare organisations and tests this model to confirm its validity. To the authors’ knowledge, this study would be one of the first that uses both lean thinking and relational view of competitive advantage theory combined to examine the moderating role of lean practices on the inter-organisational relationships in Saudi Arabia.
After a childhood with a parent in prison – relationships and well-being as a child and young adult
Authors: Nylander Per-Åke , Källström Åsa , Hellfeldt Karin 
Published: January 2018

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore whether young adults who had a parent in prison while growing up in Sweden are disadvantaged in terms of parental support, school well-being and functioning, and socioemotional and/or behavioral problems, compared to young adults whose parents were not in prison when they were a child.

Design/methodology/approach
Retrospective self-report information about parental imprisonment and childhood and adulthood welfare was collected from 2,500 Swedish young adults as part of the RESUME project. Of these, 52 who had had a parent in prison during their childhood were compared to the young adults who had not had a parent in prison, by measuring differences concerning their family relations, school well-being, and well-being as adults, and the risk of some events occurring later in life.

Findings
Having had a parent in prison was significantly related to feeling less loved during childhood, and having less contact and support from both parents during adulthood, in comparison with other young adults. In school they experienced lower well-being and were more often placed in special education than other children. They were at greater risk of not attending higher education, of planning or attempting suicide, and of being hospitalized for mental health problems than the rest of the young adults.

Research limitations/implications
Taking into consideration the complexity of childhood conditions and the limitations of retrospective data, prison, and social-services, professionals should pay special attention to the fact that a child has a parent in prison.

Originality/value
This is a unique study of young adults’ experiences of a childhood with parent in prison.
Changing the perception of police culture: recognising masculinity diversity and difference in a “dirty hands” vocation
Authors: Kennedy Michael , Birch Philip 
Published: January 2018

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to problematise the application of hegemonic masculinity to police practice and culture.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper offers a viewpoint and is a discussion paper critiquing the application of hegemonic masculinity to police officers, their practice and culture.

Findings
The paper suggests that a broader conceptualisation of masculinity, offered by scholars such as Demetriou (2001), is required when considering policing and its culture, in order to more accurately reflect the activity and those involved in it.

Research limitations/implications
Writings concerning police practice and culture, both in the media and academic discourse, are questionable due to the application of hegemonic masculinity. The application of hegemonic masculinity can create a biased perception of policing and police officers.

Practical implications
The paper helps to engender a more accurate and balanced examination of the police, their culture and practice when writing about policing institutions and encourage social institutions such as academia to address bias in their examination of policing institutions and police officers.

Originality/value
There has been limited consideration in regards to multiple masculinities, police practice and culture.
Board characteristics and firm value for Indian companies
Authors: Mishra Rakesh Kumar , Kapil Sheeba 
Published: January 2018

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the relationship between board characteristics and firm performance for Indian companies.Design/methodology/approachCorporate governance structures of 391 Indian companies out of CNX 500 companies listed on National Stock Exchange have been studied for their impact on performance of companies. Panel data regression methodology has been used on data for five financial years from 2010 to 2014 for the selected companies. Performance measures considered are market-based measure (Tobin’s Q) and accounting-based measure (return on asset [ROA]).FindingsThe empirical findings indicate that the market-based measure (Tobin’s Q) is more impacted by corporate governance than the accounting-based measure (ROA). There is a significant positive association between board size and firm performance. Board independence is found significantly related to firm performance. Number of board meetings is found to be sending positive signal to the market creating firm value. Separation of chief executive officer and chairman of the board is found to be value-creating, and overburdened directors affect firm performance adversely.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations of the study are in terms of methodology and possible omission of some variables. It is understood that the qualitative dynamics happening inside board meetings impact corporate performance. The strategic decision-making process adopted by the boards to fight competition or to increase market share is not easily available in public domain. The decision-making processes and monitoring for implementation of those decisions could impact corporate governance performance relationship. These parameters and their impact on corporate performance are not covered under the scope of the present study.Originality/valueThe paper adds to the emerging body of literature on corporate governance performance relationship in the Indian context by using a reasonably wider and newer data set.
Designing gamified transformative and social marketing services
Authors: Mulcahy Rory Francis , Russell-Bennett Rebekah , Zainuddin Nadia , Kuhn Kerri-Ann 
Published: January 2018

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to extend transformative service and social marketing practitioners’ and academics’ understanding of how gamification and serious m-games are designed, and second, to model the effects of game design elements on key transformative service and social marketing outcomes, satisfaction, knowledge, and behavioural intentions.

Design/methodology/approach
The research adopted a two-study, mixed-method research design, encompassing focus groups (n=21) and online surveys (n=497), using four current marketplace serious m-games. Study 1 was qualitative and the data were analysed in two cycles using an inductive and deductive approach. Study 2 was quantitative and the data were analysed using PLS-SEM.

Findings
The qualitative results of Study 1 discovered a framework of five game design elements for serious m-games. In Study 2, a conceptual model and hypothesised relationships were tested at a full sample level and by each serious m-game. Results show different significant relationships for each serious m-game and moderate to high levels of explanation for satisfaction and knowledge, and low to high levels of explained variance for behavioural intentions. The findings are therefore not only robust across four different serious m-games, but also demonstrate the nuances of the relationships.

Originality/value
This research contributes to two service research priorities: leveraging technology to advance services, and improving well-being through transformative services. This research demonstrates that gamification through serious m-games is one form of technology that can be designed to create a satisfying and knowledge-creating service experience, which can also influence intentions to perform health and well-being behaviours.
Different intelligences’ role in overcoming the differences in employee value system
Authors: Veingerl Čič Živa , Mulej Matjaž , Šarotar Žižek Simona 
Published: January 2018

Purpose
This paper aims to present the findings of the research about the role of different intelligences in overcoming the differences in employee value system as a source of success.

Design/methodology/approach
Based on their previous research, the authors used desk and informal field research, the Dialectical Systems Theory and its Law of Requisite Holism.

Findings
The integration of one’s personal development with one’s individual intelligence influences human value systems. Knowledge and developing of various types of intelligence matter: it lets individuals develop faster, in the long run. The higher one’s level of intelligence is, the easier one finds it to face problems or experience. Thus, one is becoming a mature personality, who can overcome extreme alternatives to the briefed human values. This process can also receive meaningful support from the exercise of social responsibility, which is one’s responsibility for one’s impacts on society, i.e. people and nature. Success of the process depends on “personal requisite holism”. The top managers need significantly more emotional and social competences than the others.

Research limitations/implications
The topic is researched with qualitative analysis in desk and informal field research. Quantitative methodological approach took place in the authors’ cited previous publications.

Practical implications
Work distribution makes the leaders and subordinates differ in prevailing values, too. Mastering of these differences will support business success, survival of jobs included and well-being of coworkers from both groups. Application of the cognitive, emotional and spiritual intelligences might help the organization meet this need. The fourth – physical intelligence – supports ensuring the psychological well-being at work; from this, other mentioned intelligences have been developed. Mastering of these differences can also receive support from methods of creative cooperation, social responsibility and personal requisite holism; the authors have reported about these elsewhere, and only point to these in this study.

Social implications
The more holistic intelligences system generates a more socially responsible society.

Originality/value
No similar concept is offered in the available literature.
Reconsidering the phosphorus limitation of soil microbial activity in tropical forests
Authors: Mori Taiki , Lu Xiankai , Aoyagi Ryota , Mo Jiangming 
Published: January 2018

Abstract

It has long been believed that soil microbial activity in tropical forest ecosystems is limited by phosphorus (P) rather than nitrogen (N) availability. In this study, we reviewed the methods used to determine the limiting nutrients and evaluated the validity of the widespread P‐limitation hypothesis in tropical forest soils.

The most commonly used analysis method entails testing whether fertilization increased microbial biomass or soil respiration. Fertilization using microbial biomass as an indicator was not a satisfactory method because standing microbial biomass does not always signal microbial activity. An increase in soil respiration after fertilization was also an insufficient indicator because the negative response shown by organic matter decomposition to nutrient addition can also be driven by nutrient shortage (nutrient mining). Nutrient amendment can also shift microbial communities towards more copiotrophic organisms, which may exhibit lower microbial respiration rates.

We suggest that P addition may accelerate soil organic matter decomposition compared with N, which is independent of the nutrient limitation of soil microbial activity. The negative response of organic matter decomposition to N addition through nutrient mining is driven by N shortage, which is less likely to occur with P. N addition inhibits microbial activity via chemical reactions, whereas P addition may stimulate activity through replacement by C bound to sorption sites in the soil, improving C availability. Thus, the P‐limitation hypothesis must be reconsidered because of the contrasting effects of exogenous N and P addition on soil microbial activity, which could lead to misdetection of P limitation on soil microbial activity in tropical forest ecosystems.

We recommend caution in applying the statement that soil microbial activity in tropical forest ecosystems is limited by P until a novel method is established to accurately determine the nutrients limiting soil microbial activity at the ecosystem level. We proposed alternative ways to describe nutrient shortage for soil microbes.

A plain language summary is available for this article.
Defaunation increases the spatial clustering of lowland Western Amazonian tree communities
Authors: Bagchi Robert , Swamy Varun , Latorre Farfan Jean‐Paul , Terborgh John , Vela César I. A. , Pitman Nigel C. A. , Sanchez Washington Galiano 
Published: January 2018

Abstract

Declines of large vertebrates in tropical forests may reduce dispersal of tree species that rely on them, and the resulting undispersed seedlings might suffer increased distance‐ and density‐dependent mortality. Consequently, extirpation of large vertebrates may alter the composition and spatial structure of plant communities and impair ecosystem functions like carbon storage.

We analysed spatial patterns of tree recruitment within six forest plots along a defaunation gradient in western Amazonia. We divided recruits into two size cohorts (“saplings”: ≥1 m tall and <1 cm diameter at breast height [dbh], and juveniles, 1–2 cm dbh) and examined the spatial organisation of conspecific recruits within each cohort (within‐cohort) and around conspecific reproductive‐sized trees (between‐cohort). We used replicated spatial point pattern analysis to quantify relationships between recruit clustering and cohort, defaunation intensity, each tree species reliance on hunted dispersers and the interactions among these three covariates.

Within‐cohort clustering of conspecific saplings increased with reliance of tree species on hunted dispersers, and this trend strengthened significantly as defaunation increased, probably because of reduced dispersal.

Within‐cohort clustering of conspecifics declined from saplings to juveniles, suggesting density‐dependent mortality of saplings. However, the positive relationship between sapling clustering and defaunation did not lead to greater reductions in within‐cohort clustering during the sapling–juvenile transition, suggesting that higher conspecific densities did not translate into increased mortality. Instead, the increased spatial clustering associated with defaunation was retained for juvenile recruits.

Between‐cohort clustering was unrelated to defaunation and did not change during the sapling–juvenile transition.

Synthesis. Defaunation increased spatial aggregation of saplings of tree species reliant on hunted dispersers. The increase in sapling clustering did not increase density‐dependent thinning, and persisted into older recruit cohorts, suggesting that hunting may initiate long‐term spatial reorganisation of Amazonian tree communities. The lack of increased density‐dependent thinning indicates that reduced dispersal did not increase mortality of large‐vertebrate dispersed tree species that contribute disproportionately to forest biomass. We, therefore, caution against the fait accompli acceptance of the prediction by recent modelling studies that overhunting will precipitate a collapse in carbon sequestration by tropical forests.
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by minimally invasive esophagectomy is safe and feasible for treatment of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
Authors: Ma Shaohua , Yan Tiansheng , Liu Dandan , Wang Keyi , Wang Jingdi , Song Jintao , Wang Tong , He Wei , Bai Jie , Jin Liang , Chen Xiaoxin 
Published: January 2018

BackgroundThe advantage of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) followed by open esophagectomy for treatment of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma has been widely recognized. However, the safety and feasibility of NAC for patients receiving minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) remain controversial. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential impact of prior neoadjuvant chemotherapy on the clinical outcome of MIE by comparing two groups of patients, MIE alone and NAC plus MIE.MethodsFrom May 2013 to July 2017, 124 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma underwent MIE in our department, with 57 cases receiving NAC plus MIE and 67 cases receiving MIE alone. Perioperative parameters and short‐term postoperative survival were compared between these two groups to evaluate the safety and feasibility of NAC given before MIE.ResultsThe group with NAC plus MIE had slightly longer operating time, more blood loss, higher morbidity, increased chance of surgical intensive care unit stay, and longer surgical intensive care unit stay time than the group with MIE alone. However, there was no statistically significant difference between these two groups (P > 0.05). The number of lymph nodes harvested was similar in the two groups without significant difference (P > 0.05). The overall survival was not significantly different between these two groups either (P > 0.05), although before surgery the clinical stage of the group with NAC plus MIE was more advanced than the group with MIE alone.ConclusionsNAC followed by MIE is safe and feasible for treatment of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. NAC does not negatively impact the therapeutic outcome of MIE.
Changes in colloid solution sales in Nordic countries
Authors: Kongsgaard U. E. , Holtan A. , Perner A. 
Published: January 2018

BackgroundAdministration of resuscitation fluid is a common intervention in the treatment of critically ill patients, but the right choice of fluid is still a matter of debate. Changes in medical practice are based on new evidence and guidelines as well as traditions and personal preferences. Official warnings against the use of hydroxyl‐ethyl‐starch (HES) solutions have been issued. Nordic guidelines have issued several strong recommendations favouring crystalloids over colloids in all patient groups. Our objective was to describe the patterns of colloid use in Nordic countries from 2012 to 2016.MethodsThe data were obtained from companies that provide pharmaceutical statistics in different countries. The data are sales figures from pharmaceutical companies to pharmacies and health institutions.ResultsWe found a 56% reduction in the total sales of all colloids in Nordic countries over a 5‐year period. These findings were mainly related to a 92% reduction in the sales of HES solutions. A reduction in sales of other synthetic colloids has also occurred. During the same period, we found a 46% increase in albumin sales, but these numbers varied between Nordic countries.ConclusionThe general reduction in colloid sales likely reflects the recommendation that colloids should be used only in special circumstances. The dramatic reduction in the sales of HES solutions was expected given evidence of harm and the official warnings. The steady increase in albumin sales and the notable differences between the five Nordic countries cannot be explained.