bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Characterization and immunomodulatory activities of polysaccharides from Spirogyra neglecta (Hassall) Kützing
Authors: Surayot Utoomporn , Wang JianGuo , Lee Ju Hun , Kanongnuch Chartchai , Peerapornpisal Yuwadee , You SangGuan 
Published: May 2015

Abstract
Sulfated polysaccharides (SP) isolated from freshwater green algae, Spirogyra neglecta (Hassall) Kützing, and fractionated SPs were examined to investigate their molecular characteristics and immunomodulatory activity. The crude and fractionated SPs (F1, F2, and F3) consisted mostly of carbohydrates (68.5–85.3%), uronic acids (3.2–4.9%), and sulfates (2.2–12.2%) with various amounts of proteins (2.6–17.1%). d-galactose (23.5–27.3%), d-glucose (11.5–24.8%), l-fucose (19.0–26.7%), and l-rhamnose (16.4–18.3%) were the major monosaccharide units of these SPs with different levels of l-arabinose (3.0–9.4%), d-xylose (4.6–9.8%), and d-mannose (0.4–2.3%). The SPs contained two sub-fractions with molecular weights (Mw) ranging from 164 × 103 to 1460 × 103 g/mol. The crude and fractionated SPs strongly stimulated murine macrophages, producing considerable amounts of nitric oxide and various cytokines via up-regulation of their mRNA expression by activation of nuclear factor-kappa B and mitogen-activated protein kinases pathways. The main backbone of the most immunoenhancing SP was (1→3)-l-Fucopyranoside, (1→4,6)-d-Glucopyranoside, and (1→4)-d-Galactopyranoside.
ECHELLE SPECTROSCOPY OF γ-RAY BINARY 1FGL J1018.6-5856
Authors: Waisberg Idel R. , Romani Roger W. 
Published: May 2015

ABSTRACT
We observed the Fermi-discovered γ-ray binary 1FGL J1018.6-5856 at 20 epochs over 50 days using the CHIRON spectrograph, obtaining spectra at

covering

Å. The average spectrum confirms an O6 V((f)) spectral type and extinction

. Variable absorption line equivalent widths suggest substantial contamination by wind line features. This variability and limited signal-to-noise ratio hindered accurate continuum definition and prevented measurement of a high quality radial velocity curve. Nevertheless, the best data indicate a radial velocity amplitude

for the He ii lines and substantially lower for H i. We argue that this indicates a most likely compact object mass

. While black hole solutions are not excluded, a neutron star source of the γ-ray emission seems preferred.
Serum and cellular ribavirin pharmacokinetic and concentration–effect analysis in HCV patients receiving sofosbuvir plus ribavirin
Authors: Rower Joseph E. , Meissner Eric G. , Jimmerson Leah C. , Osinusi Anu , Sims Zayani , Petersen Tess , Bushman Lane R. , Wolfe Pamela , McHutchison John G. , Kottilil Shyamasundaran , Kiser Jennifer J. 
Published: May 2015

Abstract

Objectives
Ribavirin concentrations may impact hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment outcome. We modelled ribavirin serum and intracellular ribavirin monophosphate (RBV-MP) and ribavirin triphosphate (RBV-TP) pharmacokinetics in red blood cells (RBC) using samples collected during the NIAID SPARE trial to explore associations with treatment outcome and the development of anaemia.

Patients and methods
Individuals infected with HCV genotype 1 (GT1) received 400 mg of sofosbuvir and either low-dose or weight-based ribavirin as part of the NIAID SPARE trial. Concentrations were modelled using NONMEM and associated with treatment outcomes using unpaired t-tests or Pearson's rho correlations.

Results
Average day 14 RBV-MP concentrations were higher in subjects with haemoglobin nadir &lt;10 g/dL relative to patients with haemoglobin nadir ≥10 g/dL (6.54 versus 4.48 pmol/106 cells; P = 0.02). Additionally, day 14 RBV-MP average concentrations trended towards being higher in subjects that achieved sustained virological response (SVR) as compared with patients who relapsed (4.97 versus 4.09 pmol/106 cells; P = 0.07). Receiver operating characteristic curves suggested day 14 RBV-MP concentration thresholds of 4.4 pmol/106 cells for SVR (P = 0.06) and 6.1 pmol/106 cells for haemoglobin nadir &lt;10 versus ≥10 g/dL (P = 0.02), with sensitivity and specificity ≥60%. Dosing simulations showed that 800 mg of ribavirin once daily produced day 14 RBV-MP concentrations within the 4.4–6.1 pmol/106 cells range.

Conclusions
RBV-MP concentrations in RBC at day 14 were related to anaemia and SVR. A therapeutic range was identified for RBV-MP in persons with HCV GT1 disease receiving 24 weeks of sofosbuvir plus ribavirin, suggesting a potential pharmacological basis for individualized ribavirin dosing in IFN-free regimens.
Karl Marx
Authors: Leopold David 
Published: May 2015

Karl Marx (b. 1818–d. 1883) was born into a Jewish family living in the Rhineland region of Prussia. Marx’s father was a lawyer whose conversion to Christianity allowed him to continue his career. Marx studied at the universities of Bonn and Berlin, writing a doctoral thesis in ancient philosophy (on the philosophy of nature in Democritus and Epicurus). His political radicalism made it difficult for him to stay in the German Confederation, and his adult life was made up of three successive exiles—in Paris (1843–1845), Brussels (1845–1848), and London (1849–1883). Throughout that adult life, Marx combined radical political activity, independent scholarship, and financial insecurity, in varying proportions. He was a prolific writer; his (and Engels’s) collected writings, in the most authoritative, and still ongoing, edition (the new MEGA, or Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe), will contain 114 volumes when complete. Identifying the central concerns of that body of work is controversial, but they surely include a theory of history, an account of alienation and human nature, a critique of modern capitalism, and a vision of communism. Determining the content of Marx’s views on these, and other, topics is not easy. He could produce clear and precise prose, but much of his output is opaque and less certain. In addition to the complexity and unfamiliarity of some of his ideas, Marx’s writings include texts written in a variety of languages (German, English, and French), targeting long-forgotten contemporaries, published under conditions of censorship, written only for the purposes of self-clarification, and so on. The resulting interpretative difficulties are hopefully eased by the bibliographical recommendations in this article. The literature on Marx’s life, ideas, and influence is considerable, but it has historically been rather mixed in quality. Happily, there is a growing body of interesting and scholarly work on Marx in English, and the recommendations here reflect that development. In order to remain manageable and focused, this article concentrates primarily on English-language literature, and especially on more recent and more “analytical” contributions to that literature.
Physicalism
Authors: Melnyk Andrew 
Published: May 2015

In the sense relevant to this article, physicalism (or materialism; the two terms are used interchangeably in the literature) is a comprehensive view about the nature of the world to the effect that every phenomenon whatever is, or is at bottom, physical. As such, it obviously raises issues about the place of phenomenal consciousness, intentionality, and morality—among other things—in a purely physical world. But it also raises issues that are independent of these familiar special cases, and it is to them that this article is devoted. One cluster of issues concerns how to formulate a thesis of physicalism that is neither obviously true nor obviously false, and significant if true. This has generally been thought to require specifying (1) a narrow sense of “physical,” perhaps linked to physics, and (2) some relation of being nothing over and above such that phenomena that are not physical in the narrow sense can be claimed to be nothing over and above phenomena that are physical in the narrow sense; candidates for such a relation are identity, supervenience, realization, and, most recently, grounding. A second cluster of issues concerns the implications of physicalism. Is physicalism a posteriori? Is it (if true at all) necessarily true? Can physicalism avoid commitment to physical reductionism? If so, how, and if not, then is that a problem for physicalism? Is physicalism consistent with the countless claims of causation and causal explanation made in the special sciences and in everyday life? (This last issue overlaps so much with the problems of mental causation, which have a vast literature of their own, that it is not addressed in the present article; the reader is directed to the separate article on mental causation.) A third cluster of issues concerns how in principle we could have, and whether in fact we do have, empirical evidence that physicalism is true—or of course that it is false. For example, is it true that for every (narrow sense) physical effect there is a sufficient physical cause, that is, that the causal closure of the physical holds? And if it does, then can a case for physicalism be built upon it? Can observed correlations between reported mental states (say) and brain states provide reason to think that mental states just are brain states? A fourth cluster of issues concerns alternatives to physicalism. Aside from traditional forms of mind-body dualism, what possible alternatives are there? For example, panpsychism holds that phenomenal properties are the intrinsic aspects of the properties known in physics through their causal or structural aspects. Is this a physicalist view or not? What scope is there for theses of pluralism, or of neutral monism?
Roary: Rapid large-scale prokaryote pan genome analysis
Authors: Page Andrew J. , Cummins Carla A. , Hunt Martin , Wong Vanessa K. , Reuter Sandra , Holden Matthew T. G. , Fookes Maria , Keane Jacqueline A. , Parkhill Julian 
Published: May 2015

ABSTRACTSummaryA typical prokaryote population sequencing study can now consist of hundreds or thousands of isolates. Interrogating these datasets can provide detailed insights into the genetic structure of of prokaryotic genomes. We introduce Roary, a tool that rapidly builds large-scale pan genomes, identifying the core and dispensable accessory genes. Roary makes construction of the pan genome of thousands of prokaryote samples possible on a standard desktop without compromising on the accuracy of results. Using a single CPU Roary can produce a pan genome consisting of 1000 isolates in 4.5 hours using 13 GB of RAM, with further speedups possible using multiple processors.Availability and implementationRoary is implemented in Perl and is freely available under an open source GPLv3 license fromhttp://sanger-pathogens.github.io/RoaryContactroary@sanger.ac.ukSupplementary informationSupplementary data are available atBioinformaticsonline.
Revenue management research in hospitality and tourism
Authors: Denizci Guillet Basak , Mohammed Ibrahim 
Published: May 2015

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to examine hospitality revenue management (RM) research in the recent decade, to identify emergent issues/topics and suggest directions for future research.Design/methodology/approachA systematic process of literature review involving content analysis was adopted. The process involved searching for published articles in three major online databases for hospitality and tourism journals, evaluating and selecting the relevant articles, analyzing and synthesizing the findings of the selected papers and organizing the findings to determine what is known and what is yet to be known.FindingsThe paper established a broad range of topics that have engaged the attention of hospitality and tourism researchers in contemporary times. These topics were structured into seven major themes constituting the core activities of hospitality RM process and another eight themes covering the factors influencing the practice of RM.Practical implicationsThe classification of the literature into core activities of RM process and factors influencing RM serves as a useful guide for practitioners and academics to trace relevant literature on various aspects of RM and to visibly notice the gaps in the existing literature.Originality/valueBy developing an RM framework and using it to evaluate existing literature, this study brings cohesion into the hospitality and tourism RM literature.
Sustainable business-and-industry foodservice
Authors: Kim Soyoung , Yoon Jihyun , Shin Joongwon 
Published: May 2015

Purpose
This study aimed to investigate consumers’ perception on sustainable business-and-industry (B&I) foodservice and their willingness to pay a premium for it.

Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was conducted. Among the 978 respondents, a total of 548 respondents who used B&I foodservice equal to or more than five times a month on an average were included for analyses.

Findings
The result revealed that consumers tended to perceive the concept of sustainability as “equivalent to (32 per cent) or beyond (28 per cent) being green or eco-friendly”. Consumers appeared to perceive the need for and the quality of sustainable B&I foodservice highly, but their awareness was comparatively low. Consumers’ awareness was significantly different across all demographic and food-related lifestyle variables. However, significant differences in the need and perceived quality were found only among food-related lifestyle variables. The result also indicated that 66 per cent of consumers were willing to pay a premium average of USD 0.72, 21 per cent of the reference meal price (USD 3.53) proposed in the survey. Consumers’ gender and eco-friendly dietary lifestyles were the significant determinants in predicting consumers’ willingness to pay a premium.

Originality/value
With concerns over environmental crisis, sustainable development has been a mainstream agenda across the world. However, the issue of sustainable development appears to be relatively overlooked in the field of foodservice research. This study is meaningful, in that it calls attention to the importance and potential of realizing sustainable foodservice and provides a starting point in relevant researches.
The effectiveness of embedded social media on hotel websites and the importance of social interactions and return on engagement
Authors: Aluri Ajay , Slevitch Lisa , Larzelere Robert 
Published: May 2015

Purpose
The main purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of embedded social media channels and determine whether the embedded social media channels enhance the overall experience of travelers using the hotel Web sites.

Design/methodology/approach
A true-experimental, between-group and post-test-only design was used to address the primary research questions. Two privately accessible complete versions of the Web site (one with embedded social media channels and one without them) were designed for the experiment. The uses and gratifications approach was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Data were analyzed using ANOVA.

Findings
The results of this study revealed that embedded social media channels on the hotel Web site enhanced travelers’ social gratifications of perceived social interaction. Apart from these benefits for travelers seeking social gratifications, embedded social media channels did not enhance the overall experience (content and process gratifications) of travelers using the Web site.

Practical implications
In the case of embedded social media on hotel Web sites, this study suggests that hotel managers measure return on engagement to examine the effectiveness of embedded social media, instead of return on investment.

Social implications
The study revealed that the emergence of embedded social media channels and their integration on hotel Web sites will have significant influence on travelers who seek social gratifications.

Originality/value
The findings of this study offer new empirical evidence that embedded social media channels enhance only travelers’ perceived social interaction during their first visit to the hotel Web site.
Capital structure of firms when taxes are removed
Authors: Alhashel Bader 
Published: May 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to further the understanding of the non-tax benefits of debt.

Design/methodology/approach
– This paper analyzes the capital structure of firms when taxes are removed by analyzing firms in an emerging market, Kuwait, where personal and corporate taxation does not exist.

Findings
– The leverage of firms in markets with no taxes are affected by the same leverage factors that affect firms where taxes are present. Non-tax benefits are economically significant and are almost 16 percent of firm value for the average leveraged firm.

Practical implications
– Given such a finding and the positive effect of debt on firm value, there should be policies to facilitate bank lending and more efficient access to credit for firms.

Originality/value
– The paper provides an estimate of the size of the non-tax benefits of debt.
Homicide-suicide in police families: an analysis of cases from 2007-2014
Authors: Klinoff Vera A. , Van Hasselt Vincent B. , Black Ryan A. 
Published: May 2015

Purpose– There is a burgeoning body of evidence showing that police officers are at a higher risk of committing homicide-suicide than civilian counterparts. The purpose of this paper is to provide an update and expansion of previous work by Violanti (2007) on homicide-suicide in law enforcement families.Design/methodology/approach– Police-perpetrated homicide-suicide cases were obtained through an online forum dedicated to topics related to domestic violence in police families. A total of 43 police-perpetrated homicide-suicides was identified and reviewed for presence/absence of variables similar to those examined by Violanti (2007), with the addition of new factors.χ2 analyses were performed to test for inter-study differences in proportions on variables of interest.Findings– Results indicated a significantly smaller proportion of homicide-suicide incidents perpetrated by State officers. The remainder of the variable frequencies remained relatively consistent between studies. Of particular importance, domestic violence and divorce/estrangement were salient precursors in these cases.Research limitations/implications– Data were obtained from an online forum and media publications, which may not be regulated for accuracy and may contain biased data.Practical implications– The current results, combined with the prior research, underscore the need for prevention programs and departmental policies that: increase the accessibility of mental health services, increase the availability of services for victims of police-involved intimate partner violence, and stress the enforcement of current domestic violence laws.Social implications– Results indicate that domestic violence is still a significant problem in law enforcement personnel, with the potential for lethal consequences.Originality/value– To the authors knowledge, this is only the second study involving a formal analysis of police-involved homicide-suicide cases.
Patterns of strategic change
Authors: Dominguez CC Marta , Galán-González Jose Luís , Barroso Carmen 
Published: May 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to know how strategic change processes unfold over time and their potential consequences for firms. The study has two main objectives: to identify the actors involved; and to analyze the sequences of changes when a firm experiences strategic change.Design/methodology/approach– To know the temporal sequence of strategic change isper seone of the most important questions of research in management. This is because it allows for a better understanding of how and why organizations change. The qualitative analysis – based on the existing literature on the change processes – aims to capture reality in flight and study long-term processes.Findings– The study identifies strategic change’s essential patterns. It determines when it is appropriate to use these sequences to improve firm performance and it explains that reorganization of the senior management can produce strategic change. The results provide a greater understanding of the strategic change processes carried out by firms which will broaden the theory relating to this subject.Practical implications– To know the strategic change circumstances and, over all, the sequence of the change process, could accelerate its implementation in a time when the speed is essential for the company competitiveness.Originality/value– The paper studies strategic change like a process. The results provide a greater understanding of the strategic change processes carried out by firms which will broaden the theory relating to this subject. The study identifies strategic change’s essential patterns both incremental as radical. By identifying these sequences, it can define the what, how and why of change, and who is involved.
Overcoming invisible obstacles in organizational learning
Authors: Huang Rui-Ting 
Published: May 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to explore the key factors that could influence mobile learning outcome, and further explore the moderating effect of employee resistance to change (RTC) on mobile learning

Design/methodology/approach
– Partial least squares analysis was utilized to examine the data. Totally, 261 employees with mobile English learning experience participated in this study.

Findings
– The study findings have indicated that the perceived playfulness, flexibility advantages, and self-regulated learning (SRL) could have a positive impact on mobile learning satisfaction, which in turn could lead to better mobile learning continuance intention. In addition, it has been found that RTC could moderate the relationship between perceived flexibility advantages and mobile learning satisfaction, the link between SRL and mobile learning satisfaction, as well as the connection between mobile learning satisfaction and continuance intention.

Originality/value
– Although a considerable amount of literature has been published on mobile and organizational learning, relatively little work has probed into the moderating role of employee RTC on mobile learning in organizations. As mobile learning has gradually been regarded as a key learning channel, in order to minimize learning barriers, and further improve learning effectiveness and efficiency in organizations, it is critical that more work should be done on the moderating role of RTC in mobile learning.