bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Financial distress and highway infrastructure delays
Authors: Edwards David John , Owusu-Manu De-Graft , Baiden Bernard , Badu Edward , Love Peter Edward 
Published: February 2017

PurposeIn developing countries, delays in highway infrastructure projects caused by financial distress-related factors threaten the construction industry’s capacity to contribute optimally to economic development. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to determine factors contributing to financial distress and develops a conceptual framework to illustrate the relationship between financial distress and project delay.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire survey collected data on factors that contributed to financial distress and delays in highway infrastructure delivery. In total, 78 responses were obtained, and factor analysis revealed that factors associated with payment, project financing, cash flow, economic issues, project planning and cost control influenced project delays.FindingsThe research identifies the importance of efficient public and private policies to engender financial sustainability among construction firms in developing countries.Originality/valueThis work presents the first research of its kind and strives to engender wider academic debate and renewed economic development in some of the world’s most impoverished nations.
Factors affecting the performance of private party in concession-based PPP projects in Nigeria
Authors: Opawole Akintayo , Jagboro Godwin Onajite 
Published: February 2017

Purpose
Notwithstanding the remarkable market potential of the Nigerian economy for private investment, the current sociopolitical characteristics had necessitated a careful assessment to inform decisions in long-term investments. The purpose of this paper is therefore to evaluate the success factors that have a specific influence on private party’s performance in concession contracts in Nigeria.

Design/methodology/approach
Respondents involved in the study were participants in concession-based contracts in Southwestern Nigeria that included architects, estate surveyors, quantity surveyors, engineers and builders, accountants/bankers/economists and lawyers. These were selected using random and respondent-driven sampling (RDS) approaches. The research instrument adopted was a questionnaire that enlisted questions which were structured to ensure that the respondents have appropriate experience in concession-based projects and hold appropriate positions as decision-makers so as to give credence to collected data. The highest significant factors were identified through the relative significance index (RSI). By exploring factor analysis, the factors were condensed for discussion under appropriate component headings. The value of Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO, 0.755) measure of sampling adequacy tests carried out showed that the data collected were adequate for the factor analysis, and the Bartlett’s test of sphericity (χ2 = 1,799.339; df = 630; p < 0.001) was highly significant.

Findings
Factors influencing private party performance clustered under eight components, namely, technical, market maturity, political, legal, finance, procurement, incentive and regulation. However, component items including level of understanding of public–private alliance transactions, stability of exchange rate and provisions for reversion of policies were found to be highly significant. On the other hand, status of domestication and implementation of international laws/codes, predictability in legal regime and enforcement and extent of jurisdictional definition of land usage were least significant.

Originality/value
Findings would guide private investors in the preparation of robust investment packages that reduce risks and seemingly unavoidable opportunistic tendencies associated with public–private partnership projects in developing economies.
Air pollution alters Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae biofilms, antibiotic tolerance and colonisation
Authors: Hussey Shane. J. K. , Purves Joanne , Allcock Natalie , Fernandes Vitor E. , Monks Paul S. , Ketley Julian M. , Andrew Peter W. , Morrissey Julie A. 
Published: February 2017

SummaryAir pollution is the world's largest single environmental health risk (WHO). Particulate matter such as black carbon is one of the main components of air pollution. The effects of particulate matter on human health are well established however the effects on bacteria, organisms central to ecosystems in humans and in the natural environment, are poorly understood. We report here for the first time that black carbon drastically changes the development of bacterial biofilms, key aspects of bacterial colonisation and survival. Our data show that exposure to black carbon induces structural, compositional and functional changes in the biofilms of both S. pneumoniae and S. aureus. Importantly, the tolerance of the biofilms to multiple antibiotics and proteolytic degradation is significantly affected. Additionally, our results show that black carbon impacts bacterial colonisation in vivo. In a mouse nasopharyngeal colonisation model, black carbon caused S. pneumoniae to spread from the nasopharynx to the lungs, which is essential for subsequent infection. Therefore our study highlights that air pollution has a significant effect on bacteria that has been largely overlooked. Consequently these findings have important implications concerning the impact of air pollution on human health and bacterial ecosystems worldwide.
Ethanol production by the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrococcus furiosus by expression of bacterial bifunctional alcohol dehydrogenases
Authors: Keller Matthew W. , Lipscomb Gina L. , Nguyen Diep M. , Crowley Alexander T. , Schut Gerrit J. , Scott Israel , Kelly Robert M. , Adams Michael W. W. 
Published: February 2017

SummaryEthanol is an important target for the renewable production of liquid transportation fuels. It can be produced biologically from pyruvate, via pyruvate decarboxylase, or from acetyl‐CoA, by alcohol dehydrogenase E (AdhE). Thermophilic bacteria utilize AdhE, which is a bifunctional enzyme that contains both acetaldehyde dehydrogenase and alcohol dehydrogenase activities. Many of these organisms also contain a separate alcohol dehydrogenase (AdhA) that generates ethanol from acetaldehyde, although the role of AdhA in ethanol production is typically not clear. As acetyl‐CoA is a key central metabolite that can be generated from a wide range of substrates, AdhE can serve as a single gene fuel module to produce ethanol through primary metabolic pathways. The focus here is on the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrococcus furiosus, which grows by fermenting sugar to acetate, CO2 and H2. Previously, by the heterologous expression of adhA from a thermophilic bacterium, P. furiosus was shown to produce ethanol by a novel mechanism from acetate, mediated by AdhA and the native enzyme aldehyde oxidoreductase (AOR). In this study, the AOR gene was deleted from P. furiosus to evaluate ethanol production directly from acetyl‐CoA by heterologous expression of the adhE gene from eight thermophilic bacteria. Only AdhEs from two Thermoanaerobacter strains showed significant activity in cell‐free extracts of recombinant P. furiosus and supported ethanol production in vivo. In the AOR deletion background, the highest amount of ethanol (estimated 61% theoretical yield) was produced when adhE and adhA from Thermoanaerobacter were co‐expressed.
Sex and Adolescent Ethanol Exposure Influence Pavlovian Conditioned Approach
Authors: Madayag Aric C. , Stringfield Sierra J. , Reissner Kathryn J. , Boettiger Charlotte A. , Robinson Donita L. 
Published: February 2017

BackgroundAlcohol use among adolescents is widespread and a growing concern due to long‐term behavioral deficits, including altered Pavlovian behavior, that potentially contribute to addiction vulnerability. We tested the hypothesis that adolescent intermittent ethanol (AIE) exposure alters Pavlovian behavior in males and females as measured by a shift from goal‐tracking to sign‐tracking. Additionally, we investigated GLT‐1, an astrocytic glutamate transporter, as a potential contributor to a sign‐tracking phenotype.MethodsMale and female Sprague‐Dawley rats were exposed to AIE (5 g/kg, intragastric) or water intermittently 2 days on and 2 days off from postnatal day (P) 25 to 54. Around P70, animals began 20 daily sessions of Pavlovian conditioned approach (PCA), where they learned that a cue predicted noncontingent reward delivery. Lever pressing indicated interaction with the cue, or sign‐tracking, and receptacle entries indicated approach to the reward delivery location, or goal‐tracking. To test for effects of AIE on nucleus accumbens (NAcc) excitatory signaling, we isolated membrane subfractions and measured protein levels of the glutamate transporter GLT‐1 after animals completed behavior as a measure of glutamate homeostasis.ResultsFemales exhibited elevated sign‐tracking compared to males with significantly more lever presses, faster latency to first lever press, and greater probability to lever press in a trial. AIE significantly increased lever pressing while blunting goal‐tracking, as indicated by fewer cue‐evoked receptacle entries, slower latency to receptacle entry, and lower probability to enter the receptacle in a trial. No significant sex‐by‐exposure interactions were observed in sign‐ or goal‐tracking metrics. Moreover, we found no significant effects of sex or exposure on membrane GLT‐1 expression in the NAcc.ConclusionsFemales exhibited enhanced sign‐tracking compared to males, while AIE decreased goal‐tracking compared to control exposure. Our findings support the hypothesis that adolescent binge ethanol can shift conditioned behavior from goal‐ to cue‐directed in PCA, especially in females.
SketchSoup: Exploratory Ideation Using Design Sketches
Authors: Arora R. , Darolia I. , Namboodiri V. P. , Singh K. , Bousseau A. 
Published: February 2017

AbstractA hallmark of early stage design is a number of quick‐and‐dirty sketches capturing design inspirations, model variations and alternate viewpoints of a visual concept. We present SketchSoup, a workflow that allows designers to explore the design space induced by such sketches. We take an unstructured collection of drawings as input, along with a small number of user‐provided correspondences as input. We register them using a multi‐image matching algorithm, and present them as a 2D interpolation space. By morphing sketches in this space, our approach produces plausible visualizations of shape and viewpoint variations despite the presence of sketch distortions that would prevent standard camera calibration and 3D reconstruction. In addition, our interpolated sketches can serve as inspiration for further drawings, which feed back into the design space as additional image inputs. SketchSoup thus fills a significant gap in the early ideation stage of conceptual design by allowing designers to make better informed choices before proceeding to more expensive 3D modelling and prototyping. From a technical standpoint, we describe an end‐to‐end system that judiciously combines and adapts various image processing techniques to the drawing domain—where the images are dominated not by colour, shading and texture, but by sketchy stroke contours.
NeuroLens: Data‐Driven Camera Lens Simulation Using Neural Networks
Authors: Zheng Quan , Zheng Changwen 
Published: February 2017

AbstractRendering with full lens model can offer images with photorealistic lens effects, but it leads to high computational costs. This paper proposes a novel camera lens model, NeuroLens, to emulate the imaging of real camera lenses through a data‐driven approach. The mapping of image formation in a camera lens is formulated as imaging regression functions (IRFs), which map input rays to output rays. IRFs are approximated with neural networks, which compactly represent the imaging properties and support parallel evaluation on a graphics processing unit (GPU). To effectively represent spatially varying imaging properties of a camera lens, the input space spanned by incident rays is subdivided into multiple subspaces and each subspace is fitted with a separate IRF. To further raise the evaluation accuracy, a set of neural networks is trained for each IRF and the output is calculated as the average output of the set. The effectiveness of the NeuroLens is demonstrated by fitting a wide range of real camera lenses. Experimental results show that it provides higher imaging accuracy in comparison to state‐of‐the‐art camera lens models, while maintaining the high efficiency for processing camera rays.
Factors influencing attendance at structured education for Type 1 diabetes in south London
Authors: Harris S. M. , Shah P. , Mulnier H. , Healey A. , Thomas S. M. , Amiel S. A. , Hopkins D. 
Published: February 2017

AbstractAimTo investigate the factors influencing uptake of structured education for people with Type 1 diabetes in our local population in order to understand why such uptake is low.MethodsWe conducted a cross‐sectional database study of adults with Type 1 diabetes in two south London boroughs, analysed according to Dose Adjustment For Normal Eating (DAFNE) attendance or non‐attendance. Demographics, glycaemic control and service use, with subset analysis by ethnicity, were compared using univariate analysis. An exploratory regression model was used to identify influencing factors.ResultsThe analysis showed that 73% of adults had not attended the DAFNE programme. For non‐attenders vs attenders, male gender (59 vs 48%; P = 0.002), older age (39 vs 35 years; P < 0.001), non‐white ethnicity (30 vs 20%; P = 0.001) and coming from an area of social deprivation (index of multiple deprivation score 31 vs 28; P < 0.001) were associated with non‐attendance. The difference in gender (88% men vs 70% women; P < 0.001) and age (43 vs 34 years) persisted in the non‐white group. Regression analysis showed that higher baseline HbA1c level (odds ratio 1.96; P = 0.004), younger age (odds ratio 0.98; P = 0.001) and lower social deprivation (odds ratio 0.52; P = 0.001) was associated with attendance.ConclusionSocio‐economic status and factors perceived as indicating greater severity of disease (HbA1c) influence attendance at DAFNE. More work is necessary to understand the demography of non‐attenders to aid future service design and alternative engagement strategies for these groups.
Glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) and fasting plasma glucose relationships in sea‐level and high‐altitude settings
Authors: Bazo‐Alvarez J. C. , Quispe R. , Pillay T. D. , Bernabé‐Ortiz A. , Smeeth L. , Checkley W. , Gilman R. H. , Málaga G. , Miranda J. J. 
Published: February 2017

AbstractAimHigher haemoglobin levels and differences in glucose metabolism have been reported among high‐altitude residents, which may influence the diagnostic performance of HbA1c. This study explores the relationship between HbA1c and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) in populations living at sea level and at an altitude of > 3000 m.MethodsData from 3613 Peruvian adults without a known diagnosis of diabetes from sea‐level and high‐altitude settings were evaluated. Linear, quadratic and cubic regression models were performed adjusting for potential confounders. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed and concordance between HbA1c and FPG was assessed using a Kappa index.ResultsAt sea level and high altitude, means were 13.5 and 16.7 g/dl (P > 0.05) for haemoglobin level; 41 and 40 mmol/mol (5.9% and 5.8%; P < 0.01) for HbA1c; and 5.8 and 5.1 mmol/l (105 and 91.3 mg/dl; P < 0.001) for FPG, respectively. The adjusted relationship between HbA1c and FPG was quadratic at sea level and linear at high altitude. Adjusted models showed that, to predict an HbA1c value of 48 mmol/mol (6.5%), the corresponding mean FPG values at sea level and high altitude were 6.6 and 14.8 mmol/l (120 and 266 mg/dl), respectively. An HbA1c cut‐off of 48 mmol/mol (6.5%) had a sensitivity for high FPG of 87.3% (95% confidence interval (95% CI) 76.5 to 94.4) at sea level and 40.9% (95% CI 20.7 to 63.6) at high altitude.ConclusionThe relationship between HbA1c and FPG is less clear at high altitude than at sea level. Caution is warranted when using HbA1c to diagnose diabetes mellitus in this setting.
The Economics of Property Rights in Early and Medieval Christianity
Authors: Koehler Benedikt 
Published: February 2017

AbstractEarly and medieval Christianity pioneered an economics of property rights that had no precedent in antiquity. The early Church Fathers Tertullian, Ambrose, and John Chrysostomos successively evolved conceptions of the right to own property as a prerequisite for poor relief, and the basis of the right to own property was later formulated by Pope John XXII to settle a dispute on this issue instigated by Francis of Assisi. This article challenges assessments advanced by Joseph Schumpeter, Jacob Viner, and Frank Knight, who argued that the doctrines of Christianity were devoid of economics, and draws attention to the work of Georg Ratzinger (1844–1899), who first expounded how in early Christianity property rights and poor relief were linked.
Monetary Ratios in a Modern Regime: Why the Monetary Base still Matters
Authors: Evans Anthony J. 
Published: February 2017

AbstractA recent paper Bank of England paper cast doubt on the ‘textbook’ model of the money multiplier. However, this criticism is inconsistent and misleading. It understates the importance of the central bank's control over the monetary base, and how this influences the money supply. The confusion suggests that it would be more fruitful to conduct analysis using the currency‐deposit ratio and reserve‐deposit ratio rather than the money multiplier, and evidence from 1998–2013 is provided. This article explains how these ratios depend on the monetary regime, and the distinction between inside and outside money. Although a modern regime alters the way that money creation occurs, the monetary base still matters.
A Perfect Impasse? Cuba's Move Towards the Market and the United States' Move Towards Cuba
Authors: Wilkinson Stephen 
Published: February 2017

AbstractThis article first analyses the internal economic trajectory of the Cuban economic reforms and evaluates their effectiveness in delivering the extensive and intensive development needed to correct Cuba's structural and economic imbalances. It concludes that without the lifting of the US economic sanctions success will at best be only partial, with serious implications for long‐term stability. The article then evaluates the reasons for the US economic sanctions against Cuba and argues that while the embargo policy might have failed to topple the Cuban communist regime, it has served other, largely unacknowledged, purposes that are important in explaining why the policy has persisted. The article concludes by suggesting that the US is not likely to jettison the sanctions regime while Cuba's single‐party, state‐led economic system remains. At the same time, Cuba is not likely to jettison its single‐party system while the sanctions remain.
Morphological evaluation of maxillary second molars with fused roots: a micro‐CT study
Authors: Ordinola‐Zapata R. , Martins J. N. R. , Bramante C. M. , Villas‐Boas M. H. , Duarte M. H. , Versiani M. A. 
Published: February 2017

AbstractAimTo evaluate the internal and external morphologies of fused‐rooted maxillary second molars by means of micro‐computed tomography (micro‐CT) analysis.MethodologyA total of 100 fused‐rooted maxillary second molars from a Brazilian subpopulation were divided into six groups according to the root morphology. The samples were scanned at a resolution of 19.6 μm and evaluated with regard to the external morphology of the roots, the root canal configuration, the percentage frequency of C‐shaped canals and isthmuses, as well as the morphology of the root canal system at 1, 2 and 3 mm from the anatomical apex of the fused roots.ResultsThe most prevalent root canal fusions were type 1, mesiobuccal root fused with distobuccal root (32%), followed by type 3, DB root fused with P root (27%), and type 4, MB root fused with DB root, and P root fused with MB or DB roots (21%). The prevalence of C‐shaped root canal systems were 22%. Depending on the type of root fusion, the percentage frequency of isthmuses in the apical level varied from 9.3% to 42.8%, whilst the presence of apical deltas ranged from 18.5% to 57.1% of teeth.ConclusionsThe root canal system of maxillary second molars with fused roots may have a high incidence of merging canals, isthmuses, apical deltas and C‐shaped configurations.
The impact of consumer decision‐making styles on consumer confusion in Mauritius: An empirical analysis
Authors: Coothoopermal Sachin , Chittoo Hemant 
Published: February 2017

AbstractThis article investigates the effects of consumer decision‐making styles on consumer confusion and harm. While consumer confusion has been well documented in the literature, this investigation attempts to bridge our understanding on its relationship with consumer decision‐making styles. Empirical data was collected from a field survey where 400 consumers selected at 20 supermarkets in Mauritius were asked to respond to a questionnaire measuring three variables under study: consumer confusion, consumer decision‐making styles, and situational factors. Findings from the MANOVA parametric test showed that there is a significant difference between consumer decision‐making styles and consumer confusion. Even when covariate situational factors were controlled through the parametric test MANCOVA, results still showed a significant difference between consumer decision‐making styles and consumer confusion. More specifically, ANCOVA tests showed that the findings were specifically significant for three types of confusion: product confusion, packaging confusion, and product complexity. The study tends to confirm that a consumer's style of decision making does impact on consumer confusion.
Antecedents of consumer price consciousness in a turbulent economy
Authors: Hampson Daniel P. , McGoldrick Peter J. 
Published: February 2017

AbstractMajor economic crises create financial and normative stressors, affecting consumers long after economies technically leave recession. Consumer adaptations to these stressors challenge researchers’ and marketers’ assumptions of well‐established concepts and theories, notably consumer price consciousness (CPC). We examine this pivotal marketing construct within the domains of stress and coping during times of economic turbulence. In this paper, the authors develop and test a conceptual model, then present implications for consumer researchers, brand marketers, and retailers. The model focuses on the relationships between changing CPC and major economic and normative stressors, respectively financial well‐being and frugality norms. To inform opportunities for specific interventions, we identify mediating roles of consumer anticipated guilt, financial fear, and smart shopper self‐perception. SEM and mediation analysis test this model, based on a national survey of 1202 UK consumers. The results identify stressors that influence changing CPC, following fundamental shifts in consumer psychology and behaviour since recession. Each antecedent of CPC presents opportunities for marketers and retailers to defend or adapt brands to the challenges and opportunities presented by more price conscious consumers.