bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Arabidopsis and Maize RidA Proteins Preempt Reactive Enamine/Imine Damage to Branched-Chain Amino Acid Biosynthesis in Plastids
Authors: Niehaus Thomas D. , Nguyen Thuy N.D. , Gidda Satinder K. , ElBadawi-Sidhu Mona , Lambrecht Jennifer A. , McCarty Donald R. , Downs Diana M. , Cooper Arthur J.L. , Fiehn Oliver , Mullen Robert T. , Hanson Andrew D. 
Published: July 2014

Abstract
RidA (for Reactive Intermediate Deaminase A) proteins are ubiquitous, yet their function in eukaryotes is unclear. It is known that deleting Salmonella enterica ridA causes Ser sensitivity and that S. enterica RidA and its homologs from other organisms hydrolyze the enamine/imine intermediates that Thr dehydratase forms from Ser or Thr. In S. enterica, the Ser-derived enamine/imine inactivates a branched-chain aminotransferase; RidA prevents this damage. Arabidopsis thaliana and maize (Zea mays) have a RidA homolog that is predicted to be plastidial. Expression of either homolog complemented the Ser sensitivity of the S. enterica ridA mutant. The purified proteins hydrolyzed the enamines/imines formed by Thr dehydratase from Ser or Thr and protected the Arabidopsis plastidial branched-chain aminotransferase BCAT3 from inactivation by the Ser-derived enamine/imine. In vitro chloroplast import assays and in vivo localization of green fluorescent protein fusions showed that Arabidopsis RidA and Thr dehydratase are chloroplast targeted. Disrupting Arabidopsis RidA reduced root growth and raised the root and shoot levels of the branched-chain amino acid biosynthesis intermediate 2-oxobutanoate; Ser treatment exacerbated these effects in roots. Supplying Ile reversed the root growth defect. These results indicate that plastidial RidA proteins can preempt damage to BCAT3 and Ile biosynthesis by hydrolyzing the Ser-derived enamine/imine product of Thr dehydratase.
Estimating contractors’ efficiency with panel data
Authors: Hung Chiang Yat , W.L. Cheng Eddie 
Published: July 2014

Purpose
– This paper aims to explore the use of the data envelopment analysis (DEA), Cobb-Douglas and translog production function methods in estimating contractors’ efficiency.

Design/methodology/approach
– In this paper, the DEA, translog and Cobb-Douglas methods were used to estimate the technical efficiency of 23 contractors in Hong Kong from 2003 to 2009. For this research, four input and three output variables were identified.

Findings
– The results suggest that the efficiency scores obtained from the DEA method were significantly different from those obtained from the translog and Cobb-Douglas methods, while the efficiency scores from the translog method were similar to those from the Cobb-Douglas method. The DEA method further reveals that the company had poor utilisation of its resources over the past few years. On the output side, the current ratio was too small, implying that the company suffered from excess current liabilities relative to its current assets.

Research limitations/implications
– Application of efficiency measurement in the built environment is still in its infancy. The current research, therefore, calls for more research to be undertaken to establish the applied literature base for the construction industry.

Practical implications
– The DEA method helps the inefficient company explore ways to improve the utilisation of the inputs as well as the process and to maximise the outputs.

Originality/value
– Knowing the relative performance of contractors helps understand their competitiveness in the construction industry. By estimating their technical efficiency, contractors can improve the conditions for enhancing performance.
A framework for the design of computer-assisted simulation training for complex police situations
Authors: Söderström Tor , Åström Jan , Anderson Greg , Bowles Ron 
Published: July 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to report progress concerning the design of a computer-assisted simulation training (CAST) platform for developing decision-making skills in police students. The overarching aim is to outline a theoretical framework for the design of CAST to facilitate police students’ development of search techniques in complex interactions within the built environment, learning to apply and perform the five “quick peek” techniques for information gathering, and subsequent risk evaluation.

Design/methodology/approach
– The paper draws on Luckin's ecology of resources model of learner context informed with perspectives on reflective thinking from John Dewey and Donald Schön. The paper discusses design issues within the ecology of resources model applied on CAST for complex police situations.

Findings
– It is suggested that Luckin's framework with its focus on the interaction between different elements and filters in the learner's context together with Schön's perspective on reflection challenge educational designers to look beyond the immediate development of specific tools (such as the CAST in this project) and examine how these tools will be effectively embedded in the overall learning experience.

Originality/value
– This paper has presented two theoretical perspectives, Luckin's ecology of resources model and Schön's perspective on reflective practice as foundations for the educational design of CAST. Applying Luckin's framework as informed by Schön helps focus attention on issues that are important in the design process in order to facilitate educational transfer.
Sensitivity-to-diversity: a moderator of diversity – affective outcomes relationships
Authors: Zhang Lu , Goldberg Caren 
Published: July 2014

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to develop two new constructs – sensitivity to gender and race/ethnicity diversity – and examined how differences in these constructs moderate the diversity – affective outcomes relationships.Design/methodology/approach– A sample of 250 full-time employees completed an online survey on their sensitivity, workgroup diversity, and affective reactions toward their workgroups.Findings– The paper performed a construct validation of the new sensitivity to diversity measures and found that they were conceptually distinct from two existing diversity perceptual constructs – gender identity salience and pro-diversity belief. Furthermore, the authors found that the moderating effect of sensitivity to gender diversity on the relationship between gender diversity and perceived cohesiveness and workgroup commitment was stronger for women than for men. The authors also found that the moderating role of sensitivity to race/ethnicity diversity on the relationship between race/ethnicity diversity and workgroup commitment and satisfaction with coworkers varied by race/ethnicity.Research limitations/implications– Although common method variance can be a problem, diagnostic tests indicated that it had minimal influence on the results.Practical implications– Organizations need to understand how individual differences among employees, especially among female and racial/ethnic minority employees, affect their responses to workgroup diversity and diversity initiatives.Originality/value– Prior research on diversity has generally not examined individual differences in the propensity to notice differences. This study contributes to the literature by examining the moderating roles of such important individual characteristics on the relationship between diversity and affective outcomes.
Diversity management and organizational change
Authors: Evans Christina 
Published: July 2014

Purpose
– Set against a background of numerous institutionally funded programmes with a focus on gender mainstreaming, the purpose of this paper is to draw on institutional theory as an alternative lens to explain why such programmes often fail to achieve the desired outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach
– The paper is based on a case of a European Social Fund EQUAL Programme aimed at enhancing employment opportunities for women in Information Technology, Electronics and Communication and related sectors. The paper focuses on the partnership working aspect, which is a fundamental mobilizing structure of European Commission programmes. Insights into the experiences of partnership working were gathered from interviews with 18, out of the 24 participating partners, on this specific programme.

Findings
– Tensions with partnership working are exposed and discussed: frustration with intra-organizational collaborative working and structures and outputs that promote a mimetic approach to change, legitimized through the symbolic use of “best practice”; findings more consistent with “institutional isomorphism”, as opposed to “institutional innovation”.

Social implications
– Given that partnership working remains a key mobilizing structure of gender mainstreaming programmes, both within Europe and in other contexts, the paper concludes with recommendations aimed at those responsible for commissioning and overseeing such programmes.

Originality/value
– This paper draws on institutional theory as an alternative lens to examine and explain why gender mainstreaming programmes do not always achieve the intended outcomes. To date, as others acknowledge, there has been limited work that has applied organizational theory to this problem.
C.U.L.T.U.R.E.: marketing education in the age of cultural diversity
Authors: Ringer Allison , Volkov Michael , Bridson Kerrie 
Published: July 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role Australian University marketing students’ cultural backgrounds play in their learning and their perceptions of assessment and explores whether current assessments appropriately address the differing needs of a culturally diverse student population.

Design/methodology/approach
– The paper adopts a qualitative approach utilising five focus groups, each comprised of 12 students.

Findings
– Results indicate learning environments, learning and assessment approaches and assessment tasks each bring their own benefits, constraints and challenges to studying in a culturally diverse environment. Principles are presented for adoption by marketing educators in order to foster a vibrant, inclusive learning environment which meets the educational needs and wants of a culturally diverse student cohort.

Research limitations/implications
– The number of students representing different global regions or countries limited this study. With the exception of students from Australia and the Asian region, there were minimal students representing other cultural backgrounds despite every attempt being made to be culturally inclusive across global regions.

Practical implications
– The paper presents the principles of C.U.L.T.U.R.E. and recommends their integration into learning approaches and assessment practices across Schools and Faculties at the tertiary level.

Originality/value
– This paper fulfils an identified need to study a culturally diverse student cohort's perceptions and attitudes towards learning approaches and assessment practices and their perceived relevance to the provision of core graduate business and generic skills necessary for employability in the global marketplace.
Do real estate courses sufficiently develop graduates’ employability skills? Perspectives from multiple stakeholders
Authors: Poon Joanna 
Published: July 2014

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) accredited real estate courses in the UK have equipped real estate graduates with sufficient relevant employability skills to embark on a career in the profession. This paper considers the perspectives of four stakeholders – employers, human resource managers, graduates and course directors of RICS-accredited real estate courses – in the UK.Design/methodology/approach– The results of a mixed-methods study, involving two online surveys with real estate employers and recent graduates of RICS-accredited real estate courses, and two sets of interviews with human resource managers of real estate surveying firms and course directors of RICS-accredited real estate courses, are presented.Findings– The employers and graduates of the RICS-accredited real estate courses do not think the courses sufficiently equip graduates’ with employability skills. On the other hand, the human resource managers are very impressed with graduates’ technical skills but have concerns about their soft skills and attributes. Human resource managers and course directors of RICS real estate courses commented that commercial awareness is an important employability skill but graduates are not well developed in this area. Course directors also noted that practical experience is vital to employability, commenting that students can only obtain real-life practical experience if employers offer them opportunities.Originality/value– This paper makes an original contribution to the existing literature on employability skills for real estate graduates. It describes pioneering research considering the perspectives of four types of stakeholders and evaluates whether real estate courses sufficiently develop graduates’ employability skills.
Application of grey relational analysis to expose individual student's cognitive difficulties in English public speaking
Authors: Joyce Lee Yow-jyy , W. Lan Lawrence 
Published: July 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to propose a formative assessment framework to expose individual student's cognitive learning difficulties in English public speaking. The paper aims to provide student feedback and information during the teaching and learning process. A grey student-construct (S-C) chart is developed to represent the students’ cognitive mapping of the speech difficulties in relation to their overall speech conceptualization. This grey S-C chart can facilitate the instructors to ameliorate the classroom teaching and learning performance in English public speaking.

Design/methodology/approach
– In total, 26 students in a class of English Speech and Rhetoric participate in the experiment – each student views the online video segments of a great speaker's speech, and then decides what segments would best support the speaking skill constructs and also reflects on his/her own difficulties in the same constructs. The grey relational analysis (GRA) method is used to analyze the empirical data. The individual student's construct localization grey relation grade values are calculated to rank the grey relation for both students and constructs. Accordingly, a grey S-C matrix is constructed and a grey S-C chart can thus be developed.

Findings
– The grey S-C chart manifestly displays the cognitive difficulties in sequences of both students and constructs.

Practical implications
– According to the grey S-C chart, the instructors may modify teaching strategies to enhance the overall classroom performance. The students may adjust learning strategies to eliminate their specific difficulties. Offering individualized advanced and remedial practices to those largely deviating from the norm is also possible.

Originality/value
– The study is the first of its kind to apply the GRA method to expose individual student's cognitive learning difficulties in English public speaking. The grey S-C chart is novel in education literature, which can reveal individual student's learning difficulty patterns.
Combined forecasting of regional logistics demand optimized by genetic algorithm
Authors: He Feng-biao , Chang Jun 
Published: July 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to establish a combined forecasting model to predict regional logistics demand, which is an important procedure on decision making of regional logistics planning.

Design/methodology/approach
– There are several kinds of mathematical models often used in forecasting regional logistics demand. Trend extrapolation method extrapolates the future development trends bases on the hypothesis that the regional logistics will develop steadily. Grey system method predicts the change of logistics demand by the generation and development of original data sequence and excavation of inherent rules of the original data. Regression method obtains the change rules through the analysis between explained variable and explanatory variables. Each method has unique characteristics. In order to improve the accuracy of the prediction, combined methods are established. Genetic algorithm is used to determine the weights of different single models.

Findings
– The results show that the combined forecasting model optimised by genetic algorithm can improve the accuracy.

Practical implications
– Combined forecasting model can integrate the advantages of different single forecasting models. The key of improving the accuracy is to determine the weights of single forecasting models. Genetic algorithm can do well in finding suitable weights of each single forecasting model.

Originality/value
– The paper succeeds in providing a combined forecasting model using genetic algorithm to determine the weights of each single prediction model, which helps to the decision making of regional logistics demand.
Mobile communication service income prediction method based on grey buffer operator theory
Authors: Qu Pinpin 
Published: July 2014

Purpose
– The mobile communication industry in China is vulnerable to competition, industry regulation, macroeconomy and so on, which leads to service income's volatility and non-stationarity. Traditional income prediction models fail to take account of these factors, thus resulting in a low precision. The purpose of this paper is to to set up a new mobile communication service income prediction model based on grey system theory to overcome the inconformity between traditional models and qualitative analysis.

Design/methodology/approach
– At first, mobile telecommunication service income is divided into number of users (NU) and average revenue per user (ARPU) prediction, respectively. Then, grey buffer operators are introduced to preprocess the time series according to their features and tendencies to eliminate the effect of shock disturbance. As a result, two grey models based on GM(1, 1) are constructed to forecast NU and ARPU, and thus the service income is obtained. At last, a case on Zhujiang mobile communication company is studied. The result proves that the proposed method is not only more accurate, but also could discover the turning point of income.

Findings
– The results are convincing: it is more effective and accurate to employ grey buffer operator theory to predict the mobile communication service income compared with other methods. Besides, this method is applicable to cases with less data samples and faster development.

Practical implications
– It's common to come across a system with less data and poor information. At this case, the grey prediction method exposed in the paper can be used to forecast the future trend which will give the predictors advice to achieve fine outcomes. Buffer operators can reduce the effect of shock disturbance and the GM(1, 1) model has the advantages of exploiting information using only a couple of data.

Originality/value
– Considering the fast development of China's mobile communication in recent years, only limited data can be acquired to predict the future, which will definitely reduce the prediction precision using traditional models. The paper succeeds in introducing GM(1, 1) model based on grey buffer operators into the income prediction and the outcome proves that it has higher prediction precision and extensive application.
Discrete Verhulst model based on a linear time-varying
Authors: Long Xia , Wei Yong , Long Zhao 
Published: July 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to build a linear time-varying discrete Verhulst model (LTDVM), to realise the convert from continuous forms to discrete forms, and to eliminate traditional grey Verhulst model's error caused by difference equations directly jumping to differential equations.

Design/methodology/approach
– The methodology of the paper is by the light of discrete thoughts and countdown to the original data sequence.

Findings
– The research of this model manifests that LTDVM is unbiased on the “s” sequential simulation.

Practical implications
– The example analysis shows that LTDVM embodies simulation and prediction with high precision.

Originality/value
– This paper is to realise the convert from continuous forms to discrete forms, and to eliminate traditional grey Verhulst model's error caused by difference equations directly jumping to differential equations. Meanwhile, the research of this model manifests that LTDVM is unbiased on the “s” sequential simulation.
Determinants of subsidiary’s technological capability – examining the roles of subsidiary–local supplier linkage
Authors: Tseng Cher-Hung , Chen Liang-Tu 
Published: July 2014

Purpose– This study aims to explore the effects of subsidiary–local supplier linkage characteristics in a supply chain and the moderating effects of a multinational corporation’s (MNC’s) international experience (IE) and a subsidiary’s innovation orientation (IO) on the subsidiary’s technological capability.Design/methodology/approach– A new research framework is developed comprising four constructs and six research hypotheses. Applying the regression model, the hypotheses were tested on data from Taiwanese MNC’s subsidiaries of manufacturing industries in Asian developing countries.Findings– The subsidiary–local supplier linkage characteristics, including economic aspect: asset-specific investment (ASI) of local supplier and social aspect: relational capital (RC) of local linkage, are positively associated with subsidiary’s technological capability. Moreover, the MNC’s IE can enhance the positive effect of RC on the subsidiary’s technological capability and the subsidiary’s IO decreases the positive impact of ASI on the subsidiary’s technological capability.Practical implications– This study provides useful insights into how MNCs and subsidiaries should concentrate on the factors that increase the subsidiary’s technological capability. Moreover, MNCs’ and subsidiaries’ managers must endeavor to establish long-term linkages with carefully selected local suppliers, induce these suppliers to provide appropriate ASI, and actively develop RC in the subsidiary–local supplier linkage to enhance the subsidiary’s technological capability.Originality/value– This study demonstrates that subsidiary–local supplier linkage characteristics, MNC’s IE and subsidiary’s IO can be applied to examine the technological capability of subsidiaries operating in less advanced countries.