bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Rural seed sector development through participatory varietal selection
Authors: Wilkus Erin Lynn , Francesconi Gian Nicola , Jäger Matthias 
Published: July 2017

PurposeThis impact assessment provides empirical evidence from household producer surveys to test the assumptions surrounding the contribution of participatory varietal selection (PVS) activities on seed sector development. The purpose of this paper is to focus on household access and adoption of common bean varieties from seed provision services and local markets to determine if, and under what social conditions, PVS activities stimulated seed uptake and market participation.Design/methodology/approachThe propensity score matching technique and simple regression analysis were used to estimate the impact and compare household performance across three farmer groups located in Hoima, Uganda.FindingsPVS increased access to and adoption of improved varieties and supported additional intermediate development outcomes when farmer group characteristics were aligned with PVS efforts. Specifically, PVS was more likely to stimulate market purchases of newly introduced varieties in the farmer group located closest to markets. The project did not however, improve all the development objectives that were evaluated. PVS most critically, did not increase the probability that households received the specific varieties they desired.Research limitations/implicationsThis study found that PVS can support the key pillars of seed sector development. In addition to increasing household access to new varieties, free seed dissemination promoted market participation and stimulated local seed market development.Originality/valueThis study addressed the need to consider intermediate development outcomes in impact assessments of development interventions. The findings clarified the contribution of PVS in the context of broader development goals and identified farmer group dynamics associated with enhanced impacts among rural producers in Uganda.
The effects of psychological capital and work engagement on nurses’ lateness attitude and turnover intentions
Authors: Karatepe Osman M. , Avci Turgay 
Published: July 2017

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate work engagement (WE) as a mediator of the influence of psychological capital (PsyCap) on lateness attitude and turnover intentions. It also examines lateness attitude as a mediator between WE and turnover intentions.

Design/methodology/approach
Structural equation modeling was employed to gauge the relationships using data gathered from nurses in public hospitals in Northern Cyprus.

Findings
The results underscore the role WE plays as a mediator between PsyCap and the previously stated outcomes. The results also highlight the role lateness attitude plays as a mediator in the relationship between WE and turnover intentions.

Originality/value
What is known about the effects of PsyCap and WE on nurses’ lateness attitude and turnover intentions is scarce. There is also limited empirical evidence regarding the underlying mechanism linking PsyCap to lateness attitude and turnover intentions.
FINRA releases guidance on social media and digital communications
Authors: Wirig Matthew T. , Poorbaugh Kate S. 
Published: July 2017

Purpose
To summarize recent FINRA guidance on social media and digital communications published in Regulatory Notice 17-18.

Design/methodology/approach
The intention was to provide a brief summary of the recent FINRA guidance on social media and digital communications published in Regulatory Notice 17-18 along with previous guidance in Regulatory Notices 10-06 and 11-39.

Findings
The new guidance focuses on a number of areas of digital communications including text messaging, personal communications, hyperlinks and sharing, native advertising, testimonials and endorsements, correction of third-party content and BrokerCheck links.

Practical implications
Firms should review this new guidance alongside existing FINRA guidance and their current social media and digital communications practices. Where firms observe deficiencies in their existing practices, adjustments should be made before they find themselves the subject of a FINRA investigation, examination or enforcement action.

Originality/value
Practical explanation by experienced financial services lawyers.
The Private Fund Limited Partnership: a new fund vehicle for the UK
Authors: Gibson Sally , Kittredge Geoffrey , Witney Simon 
Published: July 2017

Purpose
To explain the UK government’s long-awaited reforms to limited partnership law.

Design/methodology/approach
This article discusses the key updates to limited partnership law in the UK that the reforms represent and draws some conclusions as to what may lay ahead.

Findings
The article concludes that the new regime is a welcome step and one that should help the United Kingdom to remain competitive as a jurisdiction for global fund formation in the face of competition from other jurisdictions.

Originality/value
This article contains key details on the new limited partnership regime in the UK and guidance from experienced lawyers with specialties in investment management and public and private funds.
Cross border master-feeder arrangements: SEC staff slightly expands utility of offshore feeders for global investment management firms, but tax and other challenges remain
Authors: Amorosi Mark , Zornada George , Gibson Todd , Almquist Joel , Man Pablo J. 
Published: July 2017

Purpose
To analyze the recent SEC no-action relief allowing a non-US investment company to invest as a feeder fund in a US registered open-end management investment company without complying with all of the conditions of Section 12(d)(1)(E) of the Investment Company Act of 1940.

Design/methodology/approach
This article discusses the various conditions that a non-US investment company investing as a foreign feeder in a US registered open-end management investment company must satisfy in order to avoid complying with certain provisions of Section 12(d)(1)(E) of the Investment Company Act of 1940. In addition, the article analyzes certain potential tax and regulatory challenges facing firms seeking to rely on the relief.

Findings
This article concludes that the SEC no-action relief is an incremental step in reducing barriers to global distribution of US registered funds and may marginally increase the use of cross-border master-feeder arrangements as contemplated by the no-action letter. Nevertheless, this article cautions that significant impediments to global distribution of US registered funds remain, including tax withholding and non-US law issues.

Originality/value
This article contains valuable information about the regulatory impediments to global distribution of US registered funds, as well as learned assessments of the impact of recent developments in this space by experienced securities lawyers.
iPad and android tablets: wonder pills or placebo for academic library staff?
Authors: Reyes Betsaida M. , Giullian Jon , Devlin Frances 
Published: July 2017

Purpose
This paper describes the creation and work of a collaborative learning community, consisting of library staff from a variety of library departments. The purpose of this paper is to build proficiency in using tablet devices and to explore the potential application of tablets to various types of library work.

Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from discussion sessions, journals, and a survey, which documented participants’ experiences in learning how to use tablets and how they applied them to work-related tasks.

Findings
The project helped increase participants’ awareness of different types of work across the library, encouraged inter-departmental communication, and provided an open environment for asking questions, trouble-shooting, and sharing tips about using tablets. Participants mastered basic functions and navigation and explored ways to use tablets in their work. Portability was the top advantage of the tablet.

Originality/value
Although participants found tablets to be convenient and portable for some tasks, they are not ready to entirely replace office computers for library work. Laptops remain a more flexible and powerful option at this time.
Factors influencing service innovation of MSNs in China: a theoretical and empirical research
Authors: Zhao Yang , Zhou Ruoxin , Ci Yinping 
Published: July 2017

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the key factors influencing the service innovation of mobile social networks (MSNs), figure out the mechanism of all factors in different stages of service innovation and help mobile social application developers promote better service innovation.

Design/methodology/approach
From previous research, this paper adopted nine initial factors that influence the service innovation of MSNs, and divide the service innovation process into three stages (i.e. demand analysis, service design and innovation implementation). On that basis, the authors constructed a model, and then collected data from 184 managers from 20 leading MSN corporates in China through questionnaires to examine the model. Furthermore, factor analysis was used to extract key factors influencing the service innovation of MSNs, correlation analysis was employed to discuss the relationship among factors and regression analysis was applied to explore their specific roles in different stages in the service innovation process.

Findings
The empirical results show that the service innovation of MSNs is mainly influenced by five key factors: user, developer, market environment, social environment and technology. The authors found that different factors played remarkably different roles in the three stages. In specific, all factors but technology are important in the demand analysis stage; all factors but social environment are critical to service design; and all factors but user contribute to the implementation of service innovation.

Practical implications
The results of this study can help mobile social application developers and mobile social service providers in China to better understand the driving force of service innovation and what should be emphasized in different stages, and then find the optimal path to implement service innovation, improve their service quality and user experience and facilitate the development of Chinese MSNs.

Originality/value
This is the first research that comprehensively explores factors influencing the service innovation of Chinese MSNs from multi-dimensional perspectives, which provides profound theoretical guidance to the practice of service innovation in China. Also, it contributes to the development of innovation theory of traditional web services.
Executive team consensus-based perspective of organization evolution
Authors: Garg Vinay 
Published: July 2017

PurposeExecutive leadership plays a crucial role in initiating, shaping and directing strategic reorientations. But it must somehow mediate between forces of inertia and fundamental changes. This paper aims to address the unresolved paradox: how do executives address these conflicting demands?Design/methodology/approachThis paper aims to interweave two streams of seminal research in organizational evolution and organizational culture to develop a typology of strategic reorientations. The four types of strategic reorientations are illustrated with the help of published cases and biographies of CEOs, mostly of high visibility international companies such as Heineken, Burger King and Starbucks.FindingsCombinations of high and low levels of executive team consensus on its external adaptation tasks and on its internal integration tasks provoke four different types of strategic reorientations: chaotic, negotiated, muted and promising.Research limitations/implicationsUntil appropriate methods of empirical research can be found to test this framework, one has to rely on some anecdotal support as preliminary and cursory evidence. This study can inform a wide body of research which incorrectly suggested that consensus among executives during strategic reorientation has a unidirectional, positive impact on organizational performance. Directions to explore how top executives may develop ambidextrous leadership are suggested.Practical implicationsSeeking high growth, executive teams must have a good mix of managerial and entrepreneurial cognitions. Therefore, executives having dissimilar skills and backgrounds should be inducted in the team periodically, instead of hiring hurriedly at the eleventh hour. Otherwise, the new executives may contribute too high or too low levels of consensus of each type needed for optimal strategic reorientation.Social implicationsThe paper has not attempted this aspect.Originality/valueThis paper contributes a novel framework that combines two streams of seminal research, which, each by itself, would not sufficiently address the unresolved executive paradox.
Do employees’ private demands lead to cyberloafing? The mediating role of job stress
Authors: Koay Kian Yeik , Soh Patrick Chin-Hooi , Chew Kok Wai 
Published: July 2017

Purpose
Cyberloafing has been reported as a prevalent practice among employees and has been called the hidden epidemic killing business productivity. Given the importance of this issue, this study aims to propose and empirically test a research model to investigate the relationships between private demands, job stress and cyberloafing, premised on border theory, conservation of resources theory and general strain theory.

Design/methodology/approach
A total of 301 usable data were collected from employees who work in the ICT sector, using self-reported questionnaires that are subsequently analysed using Partial Least Square (PLS) structural equation modelling.

Findings
The results of this study have revealed that both private demands and job stress are positively related to cyberloafing. In addition, job stress is positively related to private demands and also partially mediates the relationship between private demands and cyberloafing. Therefore, the findings are suggestive of employee’s job resources being depleted when they cross between work and non-work domains as they attempt to satisfy their private demands. As a result, insufficient job resources channelled towards handling job-related demands results in job stress, followed by their engagement in cyberloafing behaviour as a coping mechanism.

Originality/value
The main theoretical contribution of this research is to expand upon the existing knowledge of the relationship between private demands and cyberloafing by demonstrating the mediating effect of job stress. Interestingly, the findings revealed that employees’ non-work domain can have a significant influence on both emotions and behaviours at work.
Functional trait dissimilarity drives both species complementarity and competitive disparity
Authors: Wagg Cameron , Ebeling Anne , Roscher Christiane , Ravenek Janneke , Bachmann Dörte , Eisenhauer Nico , Mommer Liesje , Buchmann Nina , Hillebrand Helmut , Schmid Bernhard , Weisser Wolfgang W. 
Published: July 2017

Abstract

Niche complementarity and competitive disparity are driving mechanisms behind plant community assembly and productivity. Consequently, there is great interest in predicting species complementarity and their competitive differences from their functional traits as dissimilar species may compete less and result in more complete use of resources.

Here we assessed the role of trait dissimilarities for species complementarity and competitive disparities within an experimental gradient of plant species richness and functional trait dissimilarity. Communities were assembled using three pools of grass and forb species based on a priori knowledge of traits related to (1) above‐ and below‐ground spatial differences in resource acquisition, (2) phenological differences or (3) both. Complementarity and competitive disparities were assessed by partitioning the overyielding in mixed species communities into species complementarity and dominance effects.

Community overyielding and the underlying complementarity and competitive dominance varied strongly among the three plant species pools. Overyielding and complementarity were greatest among species that were assembled based on their variation in both spatial and phenological traits. Competitive dominance was greatest when species were assembled based on spatial resource acquisition traits alone.

In communities that were assembled based on species variation in only spatial or phenological traits, greater competitive dominance was predicted by greater differences in SLA and flowering initiation respectively, while greater complementarity was predicted by greater dissimilarity in leaf area and flowering senescence respectively. Greater differences in leaf area could also be linked to greater species complementarity in communities assembled based on variation in both phenological and spatial traits, but trait dissimilarity was unrelated to competitive dominance in these communities.

Our results indicate that complementarity and competitive disparity among species are both driven by trait dissimilarities. However, the identity of the traits that drives the complementarity and competitive disparity depends on the trait variation among species that comprise the community. Moreover, we demonstrate that communities assembled with the greater variation in both spatial and phenological traits show the greatest complementarity among species.

A plain language summary is available for this article.
The role of topography and plant functional traits in determining tropical reforestation success
Authors: Cheesman Alexander W. , Preece Noel D. , van Oosterzee Penny , Erskine Peter D. , Cernusak Lucas A. 
Published: July 2017

AbstractEarly establishment and sapling growth is a key phase in ensuring cost‐effective reforestation success in relation to biodiversity outcomes. Therefore, species selection must consider the interaction between plant functional traits and the often‐challenging and heterogeneous biophysical environment of degraded landscapes.In this study, we examine how microtopography (slope) results in spatial heterogeneity of soil nutrients, especially phosphorus (P) in a degraded tropical pasture landscape in Queensland, Australia. We then explore how this small‐scale heterogeneity influences the growth of two native tree species,Cardwellia (C.) sublimis(Proteaceae) andFlindersia (F.) brayleyana(Rutaceae), which differ in key nutrient‐acquisition strategies.The proteaceousC. sublimiswas found to be buffered from possible P limitation in degraded soils due to its effective P acquisition by cluster roots. In contrast toC. sublimis,which showed no difference in growth after 5 years across a range of soil conditions,F. brayleyanawas found to be highly responsive to soil conditions with increased growth in low‐slope, higher P availability areas. The ability ofF. brayleyanato take advantage of high soil P levels, including the development of leaves with higher P concentrations, resulted in an apparent switch in competitive fitness between these two species across a landscape gradient.Synthesis and applications. In a detailed study of a landscape reforestation experiment in North Queensland, Australia, we demonstrate that site edaphic factors can vary within tens of metres due to topographic relief, and that species respond differently to these conditions. We therefore show the need to consider both the spatial heterogeneity of edaphic factors and the below‐ground functional traits of potential reforestation species when planning reforestation programmes.
Arboreality increases reptile community resistance to disturbance from livestock grazing
Authors: Neilly Heather , Nordberg Eric J. , VanDerWal Jeremy , Schwarzkopf Lin 
Published: July 2017

Abstract

Domestic livestock grazing directly alters ground‐level habitat but its effects on arboreal habitat are poorly known. Similarly, the response to grazing of ground‐dwelling fauna has been examined, but there are few studies of arboreal fauna. Globally, grazing has been implicated in the decline of vertebrate fauna species, but some species appear resistant to the effects of grazing, either benefiting from the structural changes at ground level or avoiding them, as may be the case with arboreal species. Here, we examine arboreal and terrestrial habitat responses and reptile community responses to grazing, to determine whether arboreal reptile species are more resistant than terrestrial reptile species.

We conducted arboreal and terrestrial reptile surveys on four different grazing treatments, at a 19‐year experimental grazing trial in northern Australia. To compare the grazing response of arboreal and terrestrial reptile assemblages, we used community, functional group and individual species‐level analyses. Species responses were modelled in relation to landscape‐scale and microhabitat variables.

Arboreal reptile species were resistant to the impact of grazing, whereas terrestrial reptiles were negatively affected by heavy grazing. Terrestrial reptiles were positively associated with complex ground structures, which were greatly reduced in heavily grazed areas. Arboreal lizards responded positively to microhabitat features such as tree hollows.

Synthesis and applications. Arboreal and terrestrial reptiles have different responses to the impact of livestock grazing. This has implications for rangeland management, particularly if management objectives include goals relating to conserving certain species or functional groups. Arboreal reptiles showed resistance in a landscape that is grazed, but where trees have not been cleared. We highlight the importance of retaining trees in rangelands for both terrestrial and arboreal microhabitats.
The effect of tocopheryl phosphates (TPM) on the development of atherosclerosis in apolipoprotein‐E deficient mice
Authors: Libinaki Roksan , Vinh Antony , Tesanovic‐Klajic Sonja , Widdop Robert , Gaspari Tracey 
Published: July 2017

Summaryα‐Tocopheryl phosphate (TP) is a naturally occurring form of vitamin E found in the body. In the present study we compared the ability of an α‐TP mixture (TPM) against a standard vitamin E supplement, α‐tocopherol acetate (TA) on the development of atherosclerotic lesions in ApoE‐deficient mice. Mice were maintained on either a normal chow diet for 24 weeks (Normal Diet), vs a group in which the final 8 weeks of the 24‐week period mice were placed on a high fat (21%), high cholesterol (0.15%) challenge diet (HFHC), to exacerbate atherosclerotic lesion development.. The difference in these two control groups established the extent of the diet‐induced atherosclerotic lesion development. Mice in the various treatment groups received either TA (300 mg/kg chow) or TPM (6.7–200 mg/kg chow) for 24 weeks, with TPM treatment resulting in dose‐dependent significant reductions in atherosclerotic lesion formation and plasma levels of pro‐inflammatory cytokines. TA‐treated mice, with the tocopherol equivalent TPM dose (200 mg/kg chow), showed no significant reduction in plasma lipid levels or evidence for aortic lesion regression. At this TPM equivalent TA dose, a 44% reduction in aortic lesion formation was observed. In addition, these TPM treated mice, also showed a marked reduction in aortic superoxide formation and decreased circulating plasma levels of known pro‐inflammatory markers IL‐6, MCP‐1, IL‐1β, IFN‐γ and TNF‐α. These findings indicate that TPM treatment slows progression of atherosclerotic lesions in ApoE‐deficient mice with this effect potentially involving reduced oxidative stress and decreased inflammation.