bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Calcineurin-FoxO-MuRF1 Signaling Pathway Regulates Myofibril Integrity in Cardiomyocytes
Authors: Shimizu Hirohito , Langenbacher Adam , Huang Jie , Wang Kevin , Otto Georg W. , Geisler Robert , Wang Yibin , Chen Jau-Nian 
Published: April 2017

AbstractAltered Ca2+handling is often present in diseased hearts undergoing structural remodeling and functional deterioration. The influences of Ca2+signaling on cardiac function have been examined extensively, but whether Ca2+directly regulates sarcomere structure has remained elusive. Using a mutant zebrafish model lackingNCX1activity in the heart, we explored the impacts of impaired Ca2+homeostasis on myofibril integrity. Gene expression profiling analysis revealed that the E3 ubiquitin ligase MuRF1 is upregulated inncx1-deficient hearts. Intriguingly, knocking down MuRF1 activity or inhibiting proteasome activity preserved myofibril integrity inncx1deficient hearts, revealing a MuRF1-mediated proteasome degradation mechanism that is activated in response to abnormal Ca2+homeostasis. Furthermore, we detected an accumulation of the MuRF1 regulator FoxO in the nuclei ofncx1-deficient cardiomyocytes. Overexpression of FoxO in wild type cardiomyocytes induced MuRF1 expression and caused myofibril disarray, whereas inhibiting Calcineurin activity attenuated FoxO-mediated MuRF1 expression and protected sarcomeres from degradation inncx1-deficient hearts. Together, our findings reveal a novel mechanism by which Ca2+overload disrupts the myofibril integrity in heart muscle cells by activating a Calcineurin-FoxO-MuRF1-proteosome signaling pathway.
How to achieve precise operation of a robotic manipulator on a macro to micro/nano scale
Authors: Yu Zhiqiang , Shi Qing , Wang Huaping , Yu Ning , Huang Qiang , Fukuda Toshio 
Published: April 2017

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present state-of-the-art approaches for precise operation of a robotic manipulator on a macro- to micro/nanoscale.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper first briefly discussed fundamental issues associated with precise operation of a robotic manipulator on a macro- to micro/nanoscale. Second, this paper described and compared the characteristics of basic components (i.e. mechanical parts, actuators, sensors and control algorithm) of the robotic manipulator. Specifically, commonly used mechanisms of the manipulator were classified and analyzed. In addition, intuitive meaning and applications of its actuator explained and compared in details. Moreover, related research studies on general control algorithm and visual control that are used in a robotic manipulator to achieve precise operation have also been discussed.

Findings
Remarkable achievements in dexterous mechanical design, excellent actuators, accurate perception, optimized control algorithms, etc., have been made in precise operations of a robotic manipulator. Precise operation is critical for dealing with objects which need to be manufactured, modified and assembled. The operational accuracy is directly affected by the performance of mechanical design, actuators, sensors and control algorithms. Therefore, this paper provides a categorization showing the fundamental concepts and applications of these characteristics.

Originality/value
This paper presents a categorization of the mechanical design, actuators, sensors and control algorithms of robotic manipulators in the macro- to micro/nanofield for precise operation.
Key assembly structure identification in complex mechanical assembly based on multi-source information
Authors: Han Zhoupeng , Mo Rong , Chang Zhiyong , Hao Li , Niu Weilong 
Published: April 2017

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to find a method for key assembly structure identification in complex mechanical assembly. Three-dimensional model reuse plays an increasingly important role in complex product design and innovative design. Assembly model has become important resource of models reuse in enterprises, which contains certain function assembly structures. These assembly structures implicating plenty of design intent and design experience knowledge can be used to support function-structure design, modular design reuse and semantics analysis for complex product.

Design/methodology/approach
A method for identifying key assembly structures in assembly model is presented from the viewpoint of assembly topology and multi-source attributes. First, assembly model is represented based on complex network. Then, a two-level evaluation model is put forward to evaluate importance of parts assembled, and the key function parts in assembly can be obtained. After that, on the basis of the function parts, a heuristic algorithm upon breadth first searching is given to identify key assembly structures.

Findings
The method could be used to evaluate key function parts and identify key assembly structures in complex mechanical assembly according to the specific circumstances.

Practical implications
The method can not only help designers find the key assembly structure in complex mechanical assembly model, facilitate the function-structure designing and semantics analyzing, and thereby improve the efficiency of product knowledge reuse, but also assist in analyzing influence scope of key function part changing and optimization of the assembly process for complex mechanical assembly.

Originality/value
The paper is the first to propose a method for key assembly structure identification in complex mechanical assembly, where the key function parts can be evaluated through a two-level evaluation model, and the key assembly structures are identified automatically based on complex network.
Mexico City street vendors and the stickiness of institutional contexts
Authors: Alvi Farzad H. , Mendoza Jorge Alberto 
Published: April 2017

PurposeThe need for a firm’s business strategy to be responsive to the institutional contexts of emerging markets is well-established in the literature. Often, however, strategic responsiveness is impeded by defining institutional contexts as country-level aggregations (macro-level) and glossing over sub-national variations (micro-level). The purpose of this paper is to investigate micro-level contexts that can defy macro-level assumptions of economic rationality.Design/methodology/approachAs a research site, the motivations of street vendors in Mexico City are analyzed in terms staying in one sub-national context, the informal sector, as opposed movement to another, the formal sector. Unanticipated reluctance to move from one context to another is defined as stickiness.FindingsSub-national institutional contexts are found to be sticky, with less movement between informal and formal sectors than would have been anticipated. Unexpectedly, it is found that a significant number of street vendors prefer the hardship of the informal sector to the relative security of the formal sector.Research implicationsInternational business research makes assumptions about the growth narrative of emerging markets, often characterizing a growing middle class as a rising tide that lifts all boats. In terms of further research on adapting strategy, however, assumptions of rational expectations ought to be tempered, as demonstrated by the stickiness of the informal sector.Originality/valueA contribution is made to the international business literature by showing that macro-level assumptions about institutional context based on rational expectations of wealth-maximizing behavior in emerging markets may result in an incomplete view of institutional context. Ultimately, adaptation of strategy could be impaired as a result.
Corporate responses to stakeholder activism: partnerships and surveillance
Authors: Uldam Julie , Hansen Hans Krause 
Published: April 2017

Purpose
Corporations are increasingly expected to act responsibly. The purpose of this paper is to examine two types of corporate responses to these expectations: overt and covert responses. Specifically, it examines oil companies’ involvement in multi-stakeholder initiatives and sponsorships (overt responses) and their monitoring of critics, including non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and activist organisations (covert responses).

Design/methodology/approach
Theoretically, the paper draws on theories of visibility and post-political regulation. Empirically, it focuses on case studies of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), Shell and BP, drawing on qualitative methods.

Findings
The paper demonstrates that overt responses create an impression of consensus between antagonistic interests and that covert responses support this impression by containing deep-seated conflicts.

Research limitations/implications
Corporate responses have implications for the role of the corporation as a (post-)political actor. By containing antagonism and creating an impression of consensus, the interplay between overt and covert responses open up further possibilities for the proliferation of soft governance and self-regulation through participation in voluntary transparency and corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Data on covert practices of corporations are difficult to access. This impedes possibilities for fully assessing their extent. The findings of this paper support trends emerging from recent research on covert corporate intelligence practices, but more research is needed to provide a systematic overview.

Originality/value
The paper contributes to the understudied area of covert corporate activity in research on the political role of multinational corporations.
Linking leadership and justice to organizational commitment
Authors: Luo Zhenpeng , Marnburg Einar , Law Rob 
Published: April 2017

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the mediating role of collective identity in the relations among transformational leadership, procedural justice and employee organizational commitment.Design/methodology/approachAn empirical survey was conducted in 43 hotels in mainland China with 585 valid responses. In addition to descriptive statistics and the test of the presence of common method bias, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the validities and reliabilities of the variables; structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to test causal relations and the mediating effects of collective identity.FindingsResults show that transformational leadership and procedural justice are good predictors of employee collective identity and organizational commitment. In addition to a strong impact on employee commitment, collective identity partially mediates the effects of transformational leadership and procedural justice on employee commitment.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is restricted to China’s hotel supervisors; therefore, caution should be taken when applying the findings to other sectors, regions and higher levels of leaders.Practical implicationsFindings of this study offer managerial insights for hotel supervisors to exercise transformational leadership and procedural justice to improve employee collective identity, which drives organizational commitment.Originality/valueAs an important concept, studies on the role of self-identity are limited in management and the field of leadership. This study tested the role of collective identity in leadership and organizational commitment in the context of Chinese culture, highlighting its theoretical and practical implications.
Legal origins and mortgage finance contradictions
Authors: Donkor-Hyiaman Kenneth Appiah , Ghartey Kenneth Nii Okai 
Published: April 2017

Purpose
This study aims to examine why Ghana has English legal origins (hypothesised as a legal framework that promotes financial development) but has not developed a well-functioning mortgage finance market.

Design/methodology/approach
The authors adopt the institutional autopsy approach developed by Milhaupt and Pistor (2008). This study is not a cross-country study but a historical examination of Ghana’s mortgage finance regulatory framework. The institutional autopsy framework considers the iterative process of change in a system and allows for context-specific system analysis.

Findings
The authors note that for a long period of about 68 years (1940-2008), some of the legal rules regulating mortgage finance were not typical of the hypothesised characteristics of the English common law tradition. These rules, including, interest rate controls, excessive entry barriers, loan default guarantee discriminations and complex foreclosure procedures, tended to inadequately protect creditors. In the context of the history of military rule and law-making, judicial discretion that could have promoted legal efficiency and strengthened contract enforcement was also limited. During this period, the legal system demonstrated a concentrated and coordinative character. New legislation in the form of the Home Mortgage Finance Act 2008 (Act 770) attempts to resolve some of these bottlenecks and improve creditor rights protection.

Research limitations/implications
The study focuses solely on how the legal institution affects creditor protection and mortgage finance in Ghana.

Practical implications
Policy-wise, the study deepens the understanding of the channels through which the law affects the development of mortgage finance.

Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the methodology used (institutional autopsy) is novel in the context of analysing mortgage finance.
Fits and misfits of supply chain flexibility to environmental uncertainty
Authors: Luo Ben Nanfeng , Yu Kangkang 
Published: April 2017

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to compare the effects on performance of two types of misfits (overfit vs underfit) as well as two types of fits (high-high fit vs low-low fit) between environmental uncertainty and supply chain flexibility.Design/methodology/approachThe two asymmetry hypotheses have been tested with survey data from 212 Chinese manufacturing firms.FindingsThe results in general provided empirical evidences for the asymmetric effects in the fits and misfits between environmental uncertainty and supply chain flexibility. For the same degree of misfit, underfit deteriorates performance more than overfit. In addition, high supply chain flexibility fitting high environmental uncertainty (i.e. high-high fit) results in a higher performance than low supply chain flexibility fitting low environmental uncertainty (i.e. low-low fit).Practical implicationsIt suggests that managers should strive to avoid the underfit of supply chain flexibility rather than the overfit, if the perfect fit is impossible to achieve. In addition, as it is beneficial to realize the fit of supply chain flexibility to high levels of environmental uncertainty, managers should probably embrace the highly uncertain environment and enhance the supply chain flexibility of their organizations to meet the increasing uncertainty of environment.Originality/valueFit and misfit are the core concepts to understand the relationships among environmental uncertainty, supply chain flexibility strategy, and performance. While the existing literature highlights the differential performance consequences of fit vs misfit between environmental uncertainty and supply chain flexibility strategy, the effects on performance are assumed to be the same for the two types of misfits, and two types of fits. The authors challenge these symmetry assumptions by arguing that overfit has a less negative effect on performance than underfit, and high-high fit has a stronger positive effect than low-low fit. The authors found empirical evidence in a large sample of Chinese manufacturing firms.
Matching supply with demand in supply chain management education
Authors: Sinha Amit , Millhiser William P. , He Yuanjie 
Published: April 2017

PurposeThe field of supply chain management (SCM) evolves dramatically due to factors of globalization, innovation, sustainability, and technology. These changes raise challenges not only to higher education institutions, but also to students, employing organizations, and third parties like SCM-related professional bodies. To understand the challenge, the purpose of this paper is to examine the gap between demand and supply of SCM-related knowledge areas, answer-related design questions, and make recommendations to close the gaps.Design/methodology/approachTo compare the demand and supply of SCM-related knowledge areas, demand data is collected from a professional career website and supply data is gathered from operations management (OM) and SCM course syllabi from AACSB-accredited business schools in the USA. Cluster analysis identifies how supply and demand are matched on the data collected.FindingsFirst, gaps exist between SCM talent requirements from industry and the knowledge/skill training by US business schools. This paper identifies matching, under-supplying, and over-supplying knowledge areas. Under-supply in emerging areas such as SCM information technology and certain logistics management topics are found. Some traditional OM topics are over-supplied due to out-of-date industry applications and should be revised to reflect the field’s transition from an OM to SCM view. Last, this paper makes recommendations to different stakeholders in this matching supply with demand process.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, it provides an up-to-date understanding on demand and supply of SCM talent in USA. Second, it provides insights and recommendations not only to educators on curriculum design, but also to potential candidates interested in SCM careers, to companies’ job recruiters, and to professional organizations (such as APICS and Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals) to reduce the gaps between demand and supply.
Rethinking balanced scorecard (BSC) measures: formative versus reflective measurement models
Authors: Park Sungbum , Lee Heeseok , Chae Seong Wook 
Published: April 2017

Purpose
Most empirical balanced scorecard (BSC) studies have shown a tendency to wrongly employ reflective indicators instead of the more theoretically suitable formative indicators. However, formative indicators are difficult to apply due to the lack of statistical software support and a standardized model testing method. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach
This study empirically compares the reflective and formative measurement method with standardized model comparison criteria. After collecting 217 valid questionnaires from companies in South Korea, the authors applied a structural equation modeling technique to analyze the data.

Findings
The result shows that the formative measure provides greater validity for the corporate performance measurement using BSC. Further, this study shows the indicators’ relative influence on each BSC perspectives using the formative measure.

Practical implications
This study proved the usefulness of the formative measure analysis method and suggested its practical use, focusing on the indicators most useful in developing corporate strategies. In addition, the authors showed that formative indicators could be used in the corporate environment by overcoming the limitations of conventional studies that were confined to causal relationships with latent variables.

Originality/value
This study may be the pioneering work that compares formative and reflective indicators simultaneously, addressing the usefulness of formative measurement and its application validity in the existing empirical studies using reflective measurements.
Quality of life of immigrant and non‐immigrant infertile patients in a publicly funded in vitro fertilisation program: a cross‐sectional study
Authors: Hasson J , Tulandi T , Shavit T , Shaulov T , Seccareccia E , Takefman J 
Published: April 2017

ObjectiveTo investigate whether there are differences in fertility quality of life (FertiQoL) and socio‐demographic characteristics between immigrants and non‐immigrant patients attending a government‐funded fertility program.DesignCross‐sectional study.SettingMcGill University Reproductive Center in Montreal, Canada, at a time when governmental funding for in vitro fertilisation (IVF) was provided to all residents.PopulationAll infertile patients, males and females, attending the center between March and July 2015.MethodsPatients were invited to complete anonymous questionnaires which included socio‐demographic items and the validated FertiQoL questionnaire.Main outcome measuresSocio‐demographic characteristics (age, gender, marital state, infertility type & duration, previous IVF attempts; education, employment, income, ethnicity, spoken languages) and FertiQoL scores.ResultsIn all, 1020 patients completed the questionnaires; of these, 752 (77.7%) non‐immigrant Canadian citizens and 215 (22.3%) resident immigrants were included in the analysis. Median duration in Canada for immigrants was 4 years. Immigrants were more likely to have university/graduate degrees (75% versus 64%), to be unemployed (37% versus 13.1%) and to have lower annual household incomes (72.8% versus 39.5%, all P < 0.05). They also reported poorer QoL and achieved significantly lower scores in the emotional, mind/body, social, treatment and total FertiQoL domains. Multivariate analysis showed male gender, lower education level and Caucasian/European ethnicity to be significantly associated with higher QoL.ConclusionsDespite governmental funding of IVF, immigrants experience reduced fertility QoL, implying cost is not the only barrier to IVF use. The reduced QoL may stem from cross‐cultural differences in infertility perception. This population may be at greater risk for depression and anxiety and should be flagged accordingly.Tweetable abstractImmigrants’ fertility QoL is lower despite publicly funded IVF implying cost is not the only barrier to IVF use.
Epidemiology of endometriosis: a large population‐based database study from a healthcare provider with 2 million members
Authors: Eisenberg VH , Weil C , Chodick G , Shalev V 
Published: April 2017

ObjectiveEndometriosis constitutes a significant burden on the quality of life of women, their families and healthcare systems. The objective of this study is to describe the real‐world epidemiology of endometriosis in an unselected low‐risk population in Israel.DesignRetrospective population‐based study.Setting and sampleThe computerised databases of Maccabi Healthcare Services (MHS), a 2‐million‐member healthcare provider representing a quarter of the Israeli population.MethodsThe crude point prevalence (31 December 2015; diagnosed since 1998) and annual incidence (2000–2015) rates of diagnosed endometriosis (ICD‐9‐CM 617.xx) were assessed among women aged 15–55 years. Prevalent patients were characterised in terms of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, including validated MHS infertility and chronic disease registries.Main outcome measuresPrevalence and incidence of diagnosed endometriosis in MHS.ResultsThe point prevalence of endometriosis [n = 6146, mean age 40.4 ± 8.0 years (SD)] was 10.8 per 1000 (95% CI 10.5–11.0). Women aged 40–44 years had the highest prevalence rate of 18.6 per 1000 (95% CI 17.7–19.5). Infertility was documented in 37% of patients. A total of 6045 patients were included in the cohort of newly‐diagnosed endometriosis (mean age 34.0 ± 8.1 years), corresponding to an average annual incidence rate of 7.2 per 10 000 (95% CI 6.5–8.0).ConclusionsWe observed a substantially lower prevalence of diagnosed endometriosis compared with previous reports in high‐risk populations, in line with population‐based estimates from European databases (range 0.8–1.8%). Further characterisation of this cohort may help to understand what affects the prevalence of endometriosis in Israel, and to promote earlier diagnosis and improve management in clinical practice.Tweetable abstractEndometriosis diagnosed in 1% of women, according to a large population‐based study in a community setting.