bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
IT outsourcing intent in academic institutions in GCC countries
Authors: Faisal Mohd Nishat , Raza Syed Asif 
Published: April 2016

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to understand the reasons behind the intent for information technology (IT) outsourcing in academic institutions in GCC countries. It also aims to develop a multi-criteria decision model (MCDM) to aid the critical decision of IT outsourcing vendor selection.

Design/methodology/approach
– The research utilizes a questionnaire-based survey to investigate reasons of IT outsourcing intent and the factors considered important for IT outsourcing vendor selection in academic institutions. The results of questionnaire-based study were utilized to develop a grey theory-based MCDM for vendor selection.

Findings
– The results show that facilitating access to new technology, focus on core-competence, saving staff costs, and improved customer service are the most important factors for IT outsourcing intent while reputation of vendor, access to the state of art technology, quality of service, and knowledge of industry were considered as the most important factors for IT outsourcing vendor selection. Grey theory-based decision model was applied to a real case to facilitate the decision of selection of an IT outsourcing vendor.

Practical implications
– Academic institutions that plan to outsource IT in future would be the major beneficiaries of this study. They can utilize the multi-criteria model to select the best vendor. The model facilitates a more rational decision making as it incorporates several criteria considered important for IT outsourcing vendor selection.

Originality/value
– This study contributes to the body of research on IT outsourcing. It is first of its kind with its focus on academic institutions in GCC countries where currently education is a priority and IT is a backbone for its delivery. Another novelty of this research is that it propose a MCDM for IT outsourcing vendor selection. The findings of this study would serve as a guide to those institutions that intend to outsource IT functions to meet the ever growing needs of managing IT effectively.
A study of software development project cost, schedule and quality by outsourcing to low cost destination
Authors: Mishra Debasisha , Mahanty Biswajit 
Published: April 2016

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to find good values of onsite-offshore team strength; number of hours of communication between business users and onsite team and between onsite and offshore team so as to reduce project cost and improve schedule in a global software development (GSD) environment for software development project.

Design/methodology/approach
– This study employs system dynamics simulation approach to study software project characteristics in both co-located and distributed development environments. The authors consulted 14 experts from Indian software outsourcing industry during our model construction and validation.

Findings
– The study results show that there is a drop in overall team productivity in outsourcing environment by considering the offshore options. But the project cost can be reduced by employing the offshore team for coding and testing work only with minimal training for imparting business knowledge. The research results show that there is a potential to save project cost by being flexible in project schedule.

Research limitations/implications
– The implication of the study is that the project management team should be careful not to keep high percentage of manpower at offshore location in distributed software environment. A large offshore team can increase project cost and schedule due to higher training overhead, lower productivity and higher error proneness. In GSD, the management effort should be to keep requirement analysis and design work at onsite location and involves the offshore team in coding and testing work.

Practical implications
– The software project manager can use the model results to divide the software team between onsite and offshore location during various phases of software development in distributed environment.

Originality/value
– The study is novel as there is little attempt at finding the team distribution between onsite and offshore location in GSD environment.
Privacy in practice: professional discourse about information control in health care
Authors: Anthony Denise L. , Stablein Timothy 
Published: April 2016

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore different health care professionals’ discourse about privacy – its definition and importance in health care, and its role in their day-to-day work. Professionals’ discourse about privacy reveals how new technologies and laws challenge existing practices of information control within and between professional groups in health care, with implications not only for patient privacy, but also for the role of information control in professions more generally.Design/methodology/approach– The authors conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews withn=83 doctors, nurses, and health information professionals in two academic medical centers and one veteran’s administration hospital/clinic in the Northeastern USA. Interview responses were qualitatively coded for themes and patterns across groups were identified.Findings– The health care providers and the authors studied actively sought to uphold the protection (and control) of patient information through professional ethics and practices, as well as through the use of technologies and compliance with legal regulations. They used discourses of professionalism, as well as of law and technology, to sometimes accept and sometimes resist changes to practice required in the changing technological and legal context of health care. The authors found differences across professional groups; for some, protection of patient information is part of core professional ethics, while for others it is simply part of their occupational work, aligned with organizational interests.Research limitations/implications– This qualitative study of physicians, nurses, and health information professionals revealed some differences in views and practices for protecting patient information in the changing technological and legal context of health care that suggest some professional groups (doctors) may be more likely to resist such changes and others (health information professionals) will actively adopt them.Practical implications– New technologies and regulations are changing how information is used in health care delivery, challenging professional practices for the control of patient information that may change the value or meaning of medical records for different professional groups.Originality/value– Qualitative findings suggest that professional groups in health care vary in the extent of information control they have, as well in how they view such control. Some groups may be more likely to (be able to) resist changes in the professional control of information that stem from new technologies or regulatory policies. Some professionals recognize that new IT systems and regulations challenge existing social control of information in health care, with the potential to undermine (or possibly bolster) professional self-control for some but not necessarily all occupational groups.
Intellectual capital and business performance
Authors: Cleary Peter , Quinn Martin 
Published: April 2016

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper, building on previous studies of intellectual capital (IC) and business performance, is an exploratory study of how the use of cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure affects the business performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach
– A survey method is used to capture perceptions of how cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure affects business performance in SMEs. The study assumes that although accounting/finance systems are generally regarded as one element of a firm’s structural capital; the introduction of a cloud-based infrastructure in the accounting/finance area has the potential to positively impact on all three elements of a firm’s IC. Based on the survey data collected, a conceptual model was formulated to test the relationship between cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure and business performance through the prism of firms’ IC.

Findings
– The results indicate that cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure has a positive and statistically significant impact on human capital and relational capital. On structural capital, although positive, the relationship is not statistically significant. On the relationship between the three components of IC and business performance, all three elements are both positive and statistically significant. Furthermore, the R2 value generated for the ultimate endogenous construct in the hypothesised conceptual model, i.e. “Business Performance” is 71.3 per cent, indicating significant model explanatory power.

Research limitations/implications
– The findings suggest further more in-depth research is needed to explore in detail the effects of cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure on both the IC and subsequent business performance of SMEs.

Originality/value
– Studies on the effects of cloud computing on accounting are scarce. This exploratory research suggests that cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure can potentially improve the business performance of SMEs. While a valuable finding in itself, more research in this area is to be encouraged.
Removing Homeownership Bias in Taxation: The Distributional Effects of Including Net Imputed Rent in Taxable Income
Authors: Figari Francesco , Paulus Alari , Sutherland Holly , Tsakloglou Panos , Verbist Gerlinde , Zantomio Francesca 
Published: April 2016

AbstractThe income tax systems of most countries entail a favourable treatment of homeownership, compared to rental‐occupied housing. Such ‘homeownership bias’ and its consequences for a wide range of economic outcomes have long been recognised in the economic literature. Although a removal of the homeownership bias is generally advocated on efficiency grounds, its distributional implications are often neglected, especially in a cross‐country perspective. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap by investigating the first‐order effects, in terms of distribution of income and work incentives, of removing the income tax provisions favouring homeownership. We consider six European countries – Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK – that exhibit important variation in terms of income tax treatment of homeowners. Using the multi‐country tax benefit model EUROMOD, we analyse the distributional consequences of including net imputed rent in the taxable income definition that applies in each country, together with the removal of existing special tax treatments of incomes or expenses related to the main residence; thus, we provide a measure of the homeownership bias. We implement three tax policy scenarios. In the first, imputed rent is included in the taxable income of homeowners, while at the same time existing mortgage interest tax relief schemes and taxation of cadastral incomes are abolished. In the two further revenue‐neutral scenarios, the additional tax revenue raised through the taxation of imputed rent is redistributed to taxpayers, through either a tax rate reduction or a tax exemption increase. The results show how including net imputed rent in the tax base might affect inequality in each of the countries considered. Housing taxation appears to be a promising avenue for raising additional revenues, or lightening taxation of labour, with no inequality‐increasing side effects.
Association between anthropometric measures of regional fat mass and heart rate variability in obese women
Authors: Rastović Marina , Srdić‐Galić Biljana , Barak Oto , Stokić Edita 
Published: April 2016

AimImpaired autonomic function could be the mechanism for the development of cardiometabolic diseases in obesity. Hence, simple anthropometric measures of overall and central obesity could be screening markers for autonomic imbalance. We analysed the relationship between heart rate variability (HRV) parameters and obesity indicators.MethodsSixty‐three obese women underwent blood pressure, lipids and anthropometric measurements, body composition assessment, HOMA (homeostasis model assessment) index calculation and short‐term HRV analysis.ResultsThe correlation between obesity indicators and HRV parameters was influenced by age. In the multiple regression model, sagittal abdominal diameter (SAD) was a significant negative predictor of lnLF/HF (logarithmically transformed ratio of low to high frequencies) and lnLFnorm, and positive predictor of HFnorm (normalized high frequencies); the significant relationship remained even after adjustment for age, HOMA, blood pressure, lipid profile, menopause, body mass index (BMI) and body fat percentage (FAT). Anterior forearm skinfold showed inverse association with HRV. Correlation between waist circumference and waist‐to‐height ratio (WHtR) with lnLF/HF, as well as between anterior thigh skinfold with lnLF/HF, LFnorm (normalised low frequencies) and HFnorm was lost after further adjustments.ConclusionAmong all anthropometric measures, SAD and anterior forearm skinfold thickness showed the highest predictive ability for HRV. Markers of lower sympathetic and higher cardiac parasympathetic activity corresponded with indicator of central obesity, while indicators of peripheral obesity showed completely opposite relationship with markers of cardiac autonomic activity.
Evaluating complementary networks of restoration plantings for landscape‐scale occurrence of temporally dynamic species
Authors: Ikin Karen , Tulloch Ayesha , Gibbons Philip , Ansell Dean , Seddon Julian , Lindenmayer David 
Published: April 2016

AbstractMultibillion dollar investments in land restoration make it critical that conservation goals are achieved cost‐effectively. Approaches developed for systematic conservation planning offer opportunities to evaluate landscape‐scale, temporally dynamic biodiversity outcomes from restoration and improve on traditional approaches that focus on the most species‐rich plantings. We investigated whether it is possible to apply a complementarity‐based approach to evaluate the extent to which an existing network of restoration plantings meets representation targets. Using a case study of woodland birds of conservation concern in southeastern Australia, we compared complementarity‐based selections of plantings based on temporally dynamic species occurrences with selections based on static species occurrences and selections based on ranking plantings by species richness. The dynamic complementarity approach, which incorporated species occurrences over 5 years, resulted in higher species occurrences and proportion of targets met compared with the static complementarity approach, in which species occurrences were taken at a single point in time. For equivalent cost, the dynamic complementarity approach also always resulted in higher average minimum percent occurrence of species maintained through time and a higher proportion of the bird community meeting representation targets compared with the species‐richness approach. Plantings selected under the complementarity approaches represented the full range of planting attributes, whereas those selected under the species‐richness approach were larger in size. Our results suggest that future restoration policy should not attempt to achieve all conservation goals within individual plantings, but should instead capitalize on restoration opportunities as they arise to achieve collective value of multiple plantings across the landscape. Networks of restoration plantings with complementary attributes of age, size, vegetation structure, and landscape context lead to considerably better outcomes than conventional restoration objectives of site‐scale species richness and are crucial for allocating restoration investment wisely to reach desired conservation goals.
Spatial variation in mortality by in‐pot predation in the Tasmanian rock lobster fishery
Authors: Briceño Felipe , León Rafael , Gardner Caleb , Hobday Alistair J. , André Jessica , Frusher Stewart D. , Pecl Gretta T. 
Published: April 2016

AbstractThe capture of target species using pots or traps can be affected by interactions that occur inside fishing gear. In the Tasmanian southern rock lobster (Jasus edwardsii) fishery (SRLF), predation by octopus is known to vary spatially, assumed to be in response to different environmental and ecological conditions. However, these effects are not well understood and there is concern that changes in the system, as a result of climate change, may alter the spatial distribution and extent of octopus predation. Using fishery‐dependent commercial time series data (2000–2011), we first examined how in‐pot lobster mortality by octopus predation varied across fishing areas at inter‐ and intra‐annual scales. These spatial and temporal patterns were examined using dynamic regression models (DRM) using lagged variables of lobster abundance (lobster catch per unit effort, CPUE), fishing effort (potlifts) and environmental variables (sea surface temperature, SST). This demonstrated that in‐pot mortality in most areas was strongly affected by the current lobster CPUE (indicating an instantaneous direct impact), whereas fishing effort and SST differed spatially in terms of lag selection and correlation sign. Most eastern Tasmanian areas showed a stronger effect of fishing effort rather than SST, with the opposite pattern along the west coast. We provide the first classification of SRLF stock assessment areas based on predation risk level and identify the explanatory fishing and environmental factors.
Endophytic bacteria in Miscanthus seed: implications for germination, vertical inheritance of endophytes, plant evolution and breeding
Authors: Cope‐Selby Naomi , Cookson Alan , Squance Michael , Donnison Iain , Flavell Richard , Farrar Kerrie 
Published: April 2016

AbstractWith growing interest in the role of microbiomes, and symbionts in particular, the aim of this study was to determine the diversity of the bacterial endophyte population within Miscanthus and to ascertain the extent of vertical transmission via the seed. A great diversity of endophytic bacteria was found in all parts of the mature plant (rhizome, root, stem and leaf), and in seedlings grown from sterilized seed grown in sterile conditions. A total of three phyla and five families of bacteria were identified as cultures compared to 19 phyla and 85 families using 16S rDNA amplification and sequencing. Not all cultured bacteria could be identified by 16S rDNA, implying that the true diversity is even greater. More bacterial diversity was identified in sterile‐grown seedlings than in all parts of the mature plant combined, 17 and 13 phyla, respectively, with 11 in common. Five phyla were present in all plant samples examined. Vertical transmission via the seed may therefore be a major source of endophytes in Miscanthus, presumably supplemented by ingress of soil bacteria as the plant grows. Bacteria identified from the mature plant were predominantly similar to known bacterial sequences in GenBank, but a small number from the stem and many from the seed were novel, potentially adapted to an in planta life cycle. Endophytic bacteria were found to form spores and other dense structures, and this provides a mechanism for long‐term survival and seed transmission. The staining of germinating seeds identified bacteria at the root tip of the emerging radicle. We propose that seed transmission of bacterial endophytes requires adaptation of both plant and microbes, plays a role in germination and has evolutionary significance and implications for future plant breeding approaches, in Miscanthus and more widely.
Practicing Collective Biography
Authors: Hawkins Roberta , Falconer Al‐Hindi Karen , Moss Pamela , Kern Leslie 
Published: April 2016

AbstractCollective biography uses researchers' written memories about a set of experiences as texts for collective analysis. As a feminist approach to research, collective biography draws centrally on the idea that significant memories are critical in the constitution of the self, and maintains that in analyzing memories collectively, researchers can begin to tap into wider social processes and structures. Though rarely used in geography, collective biography could be useful in data collection and analysis for geographers. In this paper, we provide a brief history and description of collective biography. We situate collective biography in relation to life writing methods. We then identify a set of attributes that mark collective biography as a distinct research approach. In closing, we reflect on our experiences working with collective biography.
Acute ischaemic lung injury due to pulmonary vascular obstruction
Authors: Kawabata Yoshinori , Shimizu Yoshihiko , Hoshi Eishin , Ikeya Tomohiko , Kurashima Kazuyoshi , Takayanagi Noboru 
Published: April 2016

AimsWe have encountered cases of a distinctive myxomatous alveolar wall thickening around pulmonary infarctions, and have termed it ‘acute ischaemic lung injury’ (AILI). In this study we determined if pulmonary infarction is the only cause of AILI and have elucidated its histological features.Methods and resultsWe examined 2941 cases that underwent lobectomy, surgical lung biopsies for nodular lesions or autopsies between 1994 and 2014. Cases were divided into pulmonary infarction and non‐infarction groups. The histological features of AILI sought were lobule‐based alveolar wall thickening (myxomatous or fibrous) with epithelial metaplasia and negligible inflammation. In order to characterize AILI further, we performed immunohistochemical staining using several antibodies. Thirty‐four of 69 cases in the infarction group (mean age 57.1 years, 30 males) had AILI, whereas only one (but with vascular obstruction) of the remaining 2872 in the non‐infraction group had AILI. AILI was located around infarctions. Separation of the epithelial and endothelial basement membranes of the alveolar wall was observed in 75% of cases.ConclusionsAILI is associated almost exclusively with lung infarction, caused presumably by vascular obstruction. We consider AILI to represent a distinct lung lesion other than pulmonary haemorrhage and infarction.
Comparing Health Status, Health Trajectories and Use of Health and Social Services between Children with and without Developmental Disabilities: A Population‐based Longitudinal Study in Manitoba
Authors: Shooshtari Shahin , Brownell Marni , Mills Rosemary S. L. , Dik Natalia , Yu Dickie C. T. , Chateau Dan , Burchill Charles A. , Wetzel Monika 
Published: April 2016

BackgroundLittle information exists on health of children with developmental disabilities (DDs) in the Canadian province of Manitoba.MethodThe present authors linked 12 years of administrative data and compared health status, changes in health and access to health and social services between children with (n = 1877) and without (n = 5661) DDs living in the province, matched by age, sex and region of residence.ResultsChildren with DDs were significantly more likely than children in the matched comparison group to die before the age of 17 and have a history of respiratory illness, diabetes and injury‐related hospitalizations. Children with DD also had significantly higher average number of ambulatory physician visits and higher rate of continuity of care.ConclusionsChildren with DDs had poorer health status than the matched comparison group. The health disparities experienced by children with DDs persisted over time. Further population‐based longitudinal research is needed in this area.