bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
SADRAG: NGOs with organizational growth challenges
Authors: Awasthy Richa 
Published: November 2015

Subject area
Management – NGOs and organizational growth challenges.

Study level/applicability
Undergraduate/MBA – The case can be used in an executive MBA or management development program (especially for the development sector) to discuss the importance of design in the successful transition from one phase to another in an organization.

Case overview
Social and Development Research and Action Group (SADRAG) incepted in 2004 as a registered not-for-profit organization. It was started by Dr Mala Bhandari. In 2014, Dr Bhandari estimated that SADRAG would have to expand to 7-10 employees in the Noida office and 6-8 employees in the new center in North India by the end of 2014, to manage the portfolio of projects envisaged at this time. Dr Bhandari's major challenge was how to manage the organization and meet its growing needs, and she felt burdened and stressed due to multiple demands on her due to internal issues and external interactions. People looked to her for guidance and directions. Because of the growing pressure, Bhandari decided to get an assessment done for her organization's growing needs.

Expected learning outcomes
To appreciate the challenges faced by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in India. To diagnose the stage of organizational growth of SADRAG using Greiner's model of organizational growth. To appreciate the issues and problems faced by NGOs as organizations.

Supplementary materials
Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.
Tata Wiron: branding galvanized wires
Authors: Bhangale Vijay Pundalik , Dhuri Maithili Prashant 
Published: November 2015

Subject area
Marketing.

Study level/applicability
MBA Marketing Class.

Case overview
The case describes the transition of a “Galvanized Wires Business of Tata Steel” into a unique identity, the'Tata Wiron' brand. It focuses on key stages in this journey, including “Understanding the Customers in Galvanized Wires Business”, “Value Chain”, “Challenges Faced”, “Need for Branding”, “Market Segmentation”, “Competition”, “Process of Branding”, “Differentiation”, “Distribution & Sales” and “Promotion”. Tata Steel Wires Business is a major player in the steel wire industry, servicing the discerning needs of its customers across global markets and the leading producer of steel wires in India. A wealth of experience and expertise in the wire industry coupled with latest technology incorporations has enabled Tata Steel Wires Division to constantly meet the most exacting specifications and requirements of its customers. It manufactures a wide range of wires catering to the needs of various industry segments, such as automobile, infrastructure, power and general engineering. The products are well established across the markets of Europe, the USA, Middle East Asia, Australasia, South Asia and Asia and the Far East.

Expected learning outcomes
The expected learning outcomes are as follows: understanding how in-depth analysis of the competition and value chain establishes the need for branding in a commodity market; understanding how consumer insights help in market segmentation and targeting; and building a brand in commodity market.

Supplementary materials
Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.
School inclusion for children with mental health difficulties
Authors: Holttum Sue 
Published: November 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to highlight research on the exclusion from school of children with disabilities, and especially those identified as experiencing emotional disturbance. Two studies of schools that are inclusive are then described in order to examine how they achieve good results.

Design/methodology/approach
– Three papers are summarized. The first examines things that predict children with disabilities being excluded from school, including characteristics of children and of schools. The second is a qualitative study of four English schools involved in a national programme aimed at improving children’s mental health. The third is a case study of one American school identified for its high inclusivity and excellent educational results.

Findings
– In the first study, children with emotional disturbance, and African-American children were most likely to be excluded from school. The study of four English schools suggested that implementation of the national programme was variable but leadership and planning seemed vital, as well as whole-school commitment. The high-performing inclusive American school had whole-school commitment, high quality planning alongside flexibility, on-going further training for teachers, and close pupil tracking.

Originality/value
– The study of school exclusion was the first to examine children and schools together, as well as different disabilities and ethnicity. The study of English schools highlights the experiences of those directly involved in implementing a national programme to promote children’s mental health. The study of a high-performing inclusive school in America discovered much in common with inclusive high-performing schools in England, suggesting that some practices can be identified across the two cultures that aid successful inclusion of children with disabilities including mental health difficulties.
Remarkable lives: Christopher Fox in conversation with Jerome Carson
Authors: Fox Christopher , Carson Jerome 
Published: November 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of the paper is to provide a profile of Christopher Fox.

Design/methodology/approach
– Christopher provides a short biographical account of his life thus far. He is then interviewed by Jerome. He describes how he has coped with serious depression.

Findings
– Christopher claims that he owes his own life to two things, Philosophy and his close friend Helena.

Research limitations/implications
– The wide diversity of first person accounts shows the necessity of collecting them as they reflect the lived experience of people battling with serious mental health problems. The personal is often lost in the quantitative world of p values and statistical tests.

Practical implications
– Christopher mentions being helped by numerous informal chats with peers rather than medication and focused psychological therapies.

Social implications
– While Christopher drew much sustenance from the works of Nietzsche, he was most helped by a friend who had been his learning mentor at school. Friendship can be critical in maintaining hope.

Originality/value
– Like many before him, Christopher says he “learnt more about himself in the days where I sat in the garden (with peer survivors) than in the collective sessions of therapy, CBT or hospital visits”.
Rubidium marking reveals different patterns of movement in four ground beetle species (Col., Carabidae) between adjacent alfalfa and maize
Authors: Madeira Filipe , Pons Xavier 
Published: November 2015

Abstract
In the north‐east Iberian Peninsula, in summer, arable crop landscapes are characterized by a mosaic of alfalfa and maize. Although carabids are among the main predators in both crops, crop management can affect their movement.
The main aim of the present study was to measure the movement of the four most abundant carabid species (Calathus fuscipes, Poecilus cupreus, Bembidion lampros and Pseudoophonus rufipes) between adjacent alfalfa and maize before and after alfalfa cutting, using rubidium as a marker. Movement of predators into the herbaceous margin between alfalfa and maize was also assessed.
The four carabid species showed bidirectional movements between crops, although the pattern of movement differed between species and was affected by alfalfa cutting. After cutting, the movement of C. fuscipes, P. cupreus and P. rufipes from alfalfa towards maize was higher than in the opposite direction. Bembidion lampros showed a greater degree of movement towards alfalfa than in the opposite direction before cutting and only moved to the margin after cutting.
Maize and herbaceous field margins can therefore act as both refuge and donor habitat for carabids, and can help to recolonize alfalfa after cuttings. Growing maize near alfalfa and providing an intercrop refuge habitat may conserve and enhance carabid populations.
Radiotherapy in well‐differentiated thyroid cancer: is it underutilized?
Authors: So Kevin , Smith Robin E. , Davis Sidney R. 
Published: November 2015

AbstractBackgroundThe usual management of thyroid cancer is surgery and radioactive iodine. The role of external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) in well‐differentiated thyroid carcinoma remains controversial. Indications for the use of EBRT, contained within both the American and British Thyroid Association published guidelines, include unresectable or non‐iodine avid disease, extra‐thyroidal extension or distant metastatic disease.MethodsA retrospective review of prospectively collected data from a single Australian institution was conducted, analysing patients referred and treated with EBRT for well‐differentiated thyroid carcinoma between November 1992 and July 2013.ResultsOf 36 patients referred, 32 were treated with EBRT. Sixteen patients in total received locoregional treatment (six radical, 10 palliative), of whom 81% (13/16) had gross disease and 88% (14/16) had recurrent disease (eight with multiple recurrences). Additionally, 63% (10/16) had multiple surgical resections and 50% (8/16) had previously received multiple courses of radioactive iodine. Overall, 67% (4/6) of patients treated with radical intent had no locoregional recurrence or progression. Thirteen of the 16 patients who received locoregional EBRT remained asymptomatic from their locoregional disease at the time of last follow‐up or death. The most commonly treated distant metastatic disease site was bone, with a total of 45 sites irradiated. Of these patients, 93% and 78% were symptom‐free at two and four years, respectively.ConclusionOur study suggests that in a select group of patients with well‐differentiated thyroid carcinoma, EBRT treatment appears to provide durable tumour and symptom control.
Myostatin in relation to physical activity and dysglycaemia and its effect on energy metabolism in human skeletal muscle cells
Authors: Hjorth M. , Pourteymour S. , Görgens S. W. , Langleite T. M. , Lee S. , Holen T. , Gulseth H. L. , Birkeland K. I. , Jensen J. , Drevon C. A. , Norheim F. 
Published: November 2015

AbstractAimSome health benefits of exercise may be explained by an altered secretion of myokines. Because previous focus has been on upregulated myokines, we screened for downregulated myokines and identified myostatin. We studied the expression of myostatin in relation to exercise and dysglycaemia in skeletal muscle, adipose tissue and plasma. We further examined some effects of myostatin on energy metabolism in primary human muscle cells and Simpson–Golabi–Behmel syndrome (SGBS) adipocytes.MethodsSedentary men with or without dysglycaemia underwent a 45‐min acute bicycle test before and after 12 weeks of combined endurance and strength training. Blood samples and biopsies from m. vastus lateralis and adipose tissue were collected.ResultsMyostatin mRNA expression was reduced in skeletal muscle after acute as well as long‐term exercise and was even further downregulated by acute exercise on top of 12‐week training. Furthermore, the expression of myostatin at baseline correlated negatively with insulin sensitivity. Myostatin expression in the adipose tissue increased after 12 weeks of training and correlated positively with insulin sensitivity markers. In cultured muscle cells but not in SGBS cells, myostatin promoted an insulin‐independent increase in glucose uptake. Furthermore, muscle cells incubated with myostatin had an enhanced rate of glucose oxidation and lactate production.ConclusionMyostatin was differentially expressed in the muscle and adipose tissue in relation to physical activity and dysglycaemia. Recombinant myostatin increased the consumption of glucose in human skeletal muscle cells, suggesting a complex regulatory role of myostatin in skeletal muscle homeostasis.
Structural Studies of Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors: Using Acetylcholine‐Binding Protein as a Structural Surrogate
Authors: Shahsavar Azadeh , Gajhede Michael , Kastrup Jette S. , Balle Thomas 
Published: November 2015

AbstractNicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are members of the pentameric ligand‐gated ion channel superfamily that play important roles in the control of neurotransmitter release in the central and peripheral nervous system. These receptors are important therapeutic targets for the development of drugs against a number of mental health disorders and for marketed smoking cessation aids. Unfortunately, drug discovery has been hampered by difficulties in obtaining sufficiently selective compounds. Together with functional complexity of the receptors, this has made it difficult to obtain drugs with sufficiently high‐target to off‐target affinity ratios. The recent and ongoing progress in structural studies holds promise to help understand structure–function relationships of nAChR drugs at the atomic level. This will undoubtedly lead to the design of more efficient drugs with fewer side effects. As a high‐resolution structure of a nAChR is yet to be determined, structural studies are to a large extent based on acetylcholine‐binding proteins (AChBPs) that despite low overall sequence identity display a high degree of conservation of overall structure and amino acids at the ligand‐binding site. Further, AChBPs reproduce relative binding affinities of ligands at nAChRs. Over the past decade, AChBPs have been used extensively as models for nAChRs and have aided the understanding of drug receptor interactions at nAChRs significantly.
Omeprazole and Semen Quality
Authors: Banihani Saleem A. 
Published: November 2015

AbstractA number of studies have linked omeprazole, a commonly used acid reducer under the brand name Prilosec, with semen quality. This MiniReview systematically addresses and summarizes the effect of omeprazole on semen quality, and male infertility. We searched the MEDLINE electronic database for English‐language articles using the keywords ‘omeprazole’ versus ‘sperm’ and ‘testosterone’ and the references from selected articles were reviewed, if relevant. In summary, omeprazole does not appear to change semen quality. This may be because, at least in part, it does not alter the basal levels of pituitary–gonadal hormones; in addition, it counteracts the damaging effect of reactive oxygen species. However, further research is still required to confirm this effect.
An Empirically Adjusted Approach to Reproductive Number Estimation for Stochastic Compartmental Models: A Case Study of Two Ebola Outbreaks
Authors: Brown Grant D. , Oleson Jacob J. , Porter Aaron T. 
Published: November 2015

Summary
The various thresholding quantities grouped under the “Basic Reproductive Number” umbrella are often confused, but represent distinct approaches to estimating epidemic spread potential, and address different modeling needs. Here, we contrast several common reproduction measures applied to stochastic compartmental models, and introduce a new quantity dubbed the “empirically adjusted reproductive number” with several advantages. These include: more complete use of the underlying compartmental dynamics than common alternatives, use as a potential diagnostic tool to detect the presence and causes of intensity process underfitting, and the ability to provide timely feedback on disease spread. Conceptual connections between traditional reproduction measures and our approach are explored, and the behavior of our method is examined under simulation. Two illustrative examples are developed: First, the single location applications of our method are established using data from the 1995 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a traditional stochastic SEIR model. Second, a spatial formulation of this technique is explored in the context of the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa with particular emphasis on potential use in model selection, diagnosis, and the resulting applications to estimation and prediction. Both analyses are placed in the context of a newly developed spatial analogue of the traditional SEIR modeling approach.
Tolerance Bands for Functional Data
Authors: Rathnayake Lasitha N. , Choudhary Pankaj K. 
Published: November 2015

SummaryOften the object of inference in biomedical applications is a range that brackets a given fraction of individual observations in a population. A classical estimate of this range for univariate measurements is a “tolerance interval.” This article develops its natural extension for functional measurements, a “tolerance band,” and proposes a methodology for constructing its pointwise and simultaneous versions that incorporates both sparse and dense functional data. Assuming that the measurements are observed with noise, the methodology uses functional principal component analysis in a mixed model framework to represent the measurements and employs bootstrapping to approximate the tolerance factors needed for the bands. The proposed bands also account for uncertainty in the principal components decomposition. Simulations show that the methodology has, generally, acceptable performance unless the data are quite sparse and unbalanced, in which case the bands may be somewhat liberal. The methodology is illustrated using two real datasets, a sparse dataset involving CD4 cell counts and a dense dataset involving core body temperatures.
Instrumental variable method for time‐to‐event data using a pseudo‐observation approach
Authors: Kjaersgaard Maiken I. S. , Parner Erik T. 
Published: November 2015

SummaryObservational studies are often in peril of unmeasured confounding. Instrumental variable analysis is a method for controlling for unmeasured confounding. As yet, theory on instrumental variable analysis of censored time‐to‐event data is scarce. We propose a pseudo‐observation approach to instrumental variable analysis of the survival function, the restricted mean, and the cumulative incidence function in competing risks with right‐censored data using generalized method of moments estimation. For the purpose of illustrating our proposed method, we study antidepressant exposure in pregnancy and risk of autism spectrum disorder in offspring, and the performance of the method is assessed through simulation studies.
Outcomes of unselected patients with metastatic clear‐cell renal cell carcinoma treated with first‐line pazopanib therapy followed by vascular endothelial growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors or mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors: a single institution experience
Authors: Matrana Marc R. , Bathala Tharakeswara , Campbell Matthew T. , Duran Cihan , Shetty Aditya , Teegavarapu Purnima , Kalra Sarathi , Xiao Lianchun , Atkinson Bradley , Corn Paul , Jonasch Eric , Tannir Nizar M. 
Published: November 2015

ObjectiveTo explore the efficacy and safety of pazopanib in a ‘real‐world’ setting in unselected patients, as data regarding unselected patients with metastatic clear‐cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) treated with first‐line pazopanib are limited.Patients and MethodsWe reviewed records of patients with metastatic ccRCC treated with first‐line pazopanib from 1 November 2009 through to 1 November 2012. Cox models were fitted to evaluate the association of progression‐free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) with patient co‐variables.ResultsIn all, 88 patients were identified; 74 were evaluable for response: two (3%) had a complete response, 27 (36%) a partial response, 36 (49%) had stable disease and nine (12%) had progressive disease. The median PFS was 13.7 months [95% confidence interval (CI) 8.7–18.3]. PFS was correlated with a Karnofsky Performance Status score of <80 [hazard ratio (HR) 3.26, P < 0.001] and serum lactate dehydrogenase of >1.5 × upper limit of normal (HR 3.25, P = 0.014). The median OS was 29.1 months (95% CI 20.2–not reached). The OS was correlated with brain metastasis (HR 2.55, P = 0.009), neutrophilia (HR 1.179, P = 0.018), and anaemia (HR 3.51, P < 0.001). There were no treatment‐related deaths. In all, 53 patients received second‐line therapy [vascular endothelial growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (VEGFR‐TKI) in 22 patients, mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors (mTORi) in 22 patients, and other therapy in nine patients]; the median PFS was 8.6 months (95% CI 3.3–25.7) with VEGFR‐TKI and 5 months (95% CI 3.5–15.2) with mTORi (P = 0.41); the median OS was 19.9 months (95% CI 12.9–not reached) and 14.2 months (95% CI 8.1–not reached), from initiation of second‐line VEGFR‐TKI or mTORi, respectively (P = 0.37).ConclusionsIn this retrospective study, first‐line pazopanib confirmed its efficacy in metastatic ccRCC. Trends for longer PFS and OS were seen with VEGFR‐TKI compared with mTORi after first‐line pazopanib.
Adherent perinephric fat at minimally invasive partial nephrectomy is associated with adverse peri‐operative outcomes and malignant renal histology
Authors: Kocher Neil J. , Kunchala Sudhir , Reynolds Christopher , Lehman Erik , Nie Sarah , Raman Jay D. 
Published: November 2015

ObjectivesTo predict adherent perinephric fat (APF) at minimally invasive partial nephrectomy (MIPN) using the Mayo adhesive probability (MAP) score and to determine the impact of MAP score and APF on MIPN outcomes.Patients and MethodsA total of 245 patients undergoing MIPN were included in the study. The presence of APF was determined through keywords in operating notes, and radiographic data were obtained from preoperative cross‐sectional imaging. Posterior fat thickness was measured between the renal capsule and the posterior abdominal wall at the level of the renal vein. Perinephric stranding was graded on a 0–3 severity scale.ResultsThe study included 123 men and 122 women, with a median age of 55 years, body mass index of 31.7, tumour size of 2.7 cm and nephrometry score of 6. The median posterior fat thickness was 1.79 cm and MAP score 2.63. In all, 26 patients (10.6%) had evidence of APF at the time of renal surgery. Factors predictive of APF included increasing age (P = 0.001), male gender (P = 0.045), perinephric stranding (P = 0.002), posterior fat thickness (P < 0.001) and MAP score (P < 0.001). APF was associated with adverse pathological and peri‐operative outcomes including malignant renal histology (P = 0.04), longer operating time (P = 0.005) and greater estimated blood loss (EBL; P = 0.025).ConclusionsSpecific clinical and radiographic factors predict APF at MIPN. The presence of APF is associated with adverse peri‐operative outcomes including longer operating time and greater EBL. APF was also associated with renal malignancy on final pathology, but further studies are necessary to elucidate the precise underlying mechanism.