bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Knowledge network creation methodology selection in project-based organizations
Authors: Bourouni Atieh , Noori Siamak , Jafari Mostafa 
Published: January 2015

Purpose– In today’s knowledge-based economy, knowledge networks (KN) increasingly are becoming vital channels for pursuing strategic objectives in project-based organizations (PBO), in which the project is the basic organizational element in its operation. KN initiatives often are started with the selection of a creation methodology, which involves complex decisions for successful implementation. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to address this critical selection of methodology and proposes a holistic framework for selecting an appropriate methodology in this kind of flatter, speedier, and more flexible organizational form.Design/methodology/approach– In the first step, the study established a theoretical background addressing the problem of KN creation in PBO. The second step defined selection criteria based on extensive literature review. In the third step, a holistic framework was constructed based on different characteristics of existing methodologies categorized according to the selected criteria. Finally, the suggested framework was empirically tested in a project-based firm and the case study and the results are discussed.Findings– A holistic framework was determined by including different aspects of a KN such as network perspectives, tools and techniques, objectives, characteristics, capabilities, and approaches. The proposed framework consisted of ten existing KN methodologies that consider qualitative and quantitative dimensions with micro and macro approaches.Originality/value– The development of the theory of KN creation methodology is the main contribution of this research. The selection framework, which was theoretically and empirically grounded, has attempted to offer a more rational and less ambiguous solution to the KN methodology selection problem in PBO forms.
The impact of internal brand management on employee job satisfaction, brand commitment and intention to stay
Authors: Du Preez Rose , Bendixen Michael Thomas 
Published: January 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which internal brand management (IBM), a subset of internal marketing, impacts on the three dimensions of job satisfaction ( JS), brand commitment (BC) and intention to stay (IS).

Design/methodology/approach
– A financial services company in Southern Africa was selected using convenience sampling. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to identify the dimensions of IBM, BC, JS and IS. Partial least squares path modeling was used to test the model and the hypotheses. The Mann-Whitney test was used to identify any statistically significant differences between frontline staff and management/support staff.

Findings
– The EFA of the components of IBM did not yield the three expected dimensions. For service staff, IBM significantly contributes to JS, BC and IS. Internal brand communication is the most important contributor to IBM.

Research limitations/implications
– In common with others, this research uses a limited sample size in a specific geographic location. The results may differ if replicated in other geographies or organizations.

Practical implications
– Executives and managers of financial service firms are advised to drive focussed IBM practices rather than waiting for it to become the passive consequence of human resource management.

Originality/value
– Given the paucity of research into the practical application of IBM, the purpose of this research is to explore the impact of IBM on frontline employees in the financial services industry.
Motion identification based on sEMG for flexible pneumatic hand rehabilitator
Authors: Bao Guanjun , Li Kun , Xu Sheng , Huang Pengcheng , Wu Luan , Yang Qinghua 
Published: January 2015

Purpose
– This paper aims to avoid the precise modeling and controlling problems of rigid structures of hand recovery device, by proposing a hand rehabilitator based on flexible pneumatic actuator with its safety and adaptability.

Design/methodology/approach
– The hand rehabilitator is designed based on a flexible pneumatic bending joint. The recovery training program for an injured finger is developed via forearm sEMG (surface electromyogram) sampling, analysis, classification and motion consciousness identification. Four typical movement models of the index finger and middle finger were defined and the corresponding sEMG signals were sampled. After simulation and comparative analysis, autoregressive (AR) model back propagation (BP) network was selected for sEMG analysis and hand recovery planning because of its best recognition performance. A verification test was designed and the results showed that the soft hand rehabilitator and recovery conception are feasible.

Findings
– AR model BP network can identify the index finger and middle finger movement intention via an sEMG analysis. The developed flexible pneumatic hand rehabilitator is safe and suitable for finger recovering therapy.

Research limitations/implications
– Because of the limitation of experimental samples, the prototype rehabilitator of this work may lack generalizability for other situations. Therefore, for further study and application, systematic structure revising, experiments, data and training are necessary to improve the performance.

Practical implications
– The paper includes implications for the development and application of a new style, safe and dexterous hand rehabilitator.

Originality/value
– The paper tries a new approach to design a safe, flexible and easily controlled hand rehabilitator.
Integration of mobile manipulators in an industrial production
Authors: Madsen Ole , Bøgh Simon , Schou Casper , Andersen Rasmus Skovgaard , Damgaard Jens Skov , Pedersen Mikkel Rath , Krüger Volker 
Published: January 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this study has been to evaluate the technology of autonomous mobile manipulation in a real world industrial manufacturing environment. The objective has been to obtain experience in the integration with existing equipment and determine key challenges in maturing the technology to a level of readiness suitable for industry. Despite much research within the topic of industrial mobile manipulation, the technology has not yet found its way to the industry. To mature the technology to a level of readiness suitable for industry real-world experience is crucial. This paper reports from such a real-world industrial experiment with two mobile manipulators.

Design/methodology/approach
– In the experiment, autonomous industrial mobile manipulators are integrated into the actual manufacturing environment of the pump manufacturer Grundfos. The two robots together solve the task of producing rotors; a task constituted by several sub-tasks ranging from logistics to complex assembly. With a total duration of 10 days, the experiment includes workspace adaptation, safety regulations, rapid robot instruction and running production.

Findings
– With a setup time of less than one day, it was possible to program both robots to perform the production scenario in collaboration. Despite the success, the experiment clearly demonstrated several topics in need of further research before the technology can be made available to the industry: robustness and cycle time, safety investigations and possibly standardization, and robot and workstation re-configurability.

Originality/value
– Despite the attention of research around the world, the topic of industrial mobile manipulation has only seen a limited number of real-world integrations. This work reports from a comprehensive integration into a real-world running production and thus reports on the key challenges identified from this integration.
Visual trajectory tracking of industrial manipulator with iterative learning control
Authors: Jia Bingxi , Liu Shan , Liu Yi 
Published: January 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to propose a more efficient strategy, which is easier to implement, i.e. the engineer can directly operate the target object without the robot to do a demonstration, and the manipulator is regulated to track the trajectory using vision feedback repetitively. Generally, the applications of industrial robotic manipulators are based on teaching playback strategy, i.e. the engineer should directly operate the manipulator to perform a demonstration and then the manipulator uses the recorded driving signals to perform repetitive tasks.

Design/methodology/approach
– In the teaching process, the engineer grasps the object with a camera on it to do a demonstration, during which a series of images are recorded. The desired trajectory is defined by the homography between the images captured at current and final poses. Tracking error is directly defined by the homography matrix, without 3D reconstruction. Model-free feedback-assisted iterative learning control strategy is used for repetitive tracking, where feed-forward control signal is generated by iterative learning control strategy and feedback control signal is generated by direct feedback control.

Findings
– The proposed framework is able to perform precise trajectory tracking by iterative learning, and is model-free so that the singularity problem is avoided which often occurs in conventional Jacobean-based visual servo systems. Besides, the framework is robust to image noise, which is shown in simulations and experiments.

Originality/value
– The proposed framework is model-free, so that it is more flexible for industrial use and easier to implement. Satisfactory tracking performance can be achieved in the presence of image noise. System convergence is analyzed and experiments are provided for evaluation.
Classification and relationships between risks that affect lean production implementation
Authors: Marodin Giuliano Almeida , Saurin Tarcísio Abreu 
Published: January 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is twofold: to classify the risks that affect the lean production implementation (LPI) process, and to demonstrate how that classification can help to identify the relationships between the risks.

Design/methodology/approach
– Initially, a survey was conducted to identify the probability and impact of 14 risks in LPI, which had been identified based on a literature review. The sample comprised 57 respondents, from companies in the south of Brazil. An exploratory factor analysis was carried out to analyze the results of the survey, allowing the identification of three groups of risks in LPI. Then, a case study was conducted in one of the companies represented in the survey, in order to identify examples of relationships between the risks. Multiple sources of evidence were used in the case study, such as interviews, observations and documents analysis.

Findings
– The risks that affect LPI were grouped into three categories: management of the process of LPI, top and middle management support and shop floor involvement. A number of examples of relationships between the risks were identified.

Research limitations/implications
– The survey was limited to companies from the south of Brazil and therefore its results cannot be completelly generalized to other companies. Moreover, the results of the survey were not subjected to a confirmatory factor analysis.

Originality/value
– This study helps to improve the understanding of LPI, as: it re-interprets the factors, barriers and difficulties for LPI from the perspective of risk management, which had not been used for that purpose so far; it presents a classification of the risks that affect LPI, which can support the understanding of the relationships between the risks and, as a result, it can support the development of more effective methods for LPI.
A leader’s guide to strategic risk management
Authors: Calandro Joseph 
Published: January 2015

Purpose
– Many firms did not have mechanisms in place prior to 2007 to identify and track the weak signals of an impending financial crisis, and as a result they were not prepared for the stresses and opportunities the crisis generated. The author aims to offer a guide to identifying these weak signals and a system for mitigating the risk of being hurt by another such crisis.

Design/methodology/approach
– This is a guide to strategic risk management (SRM), which defines a process of identifying, assessing and economically managing potentially enterprise-threatening losses. It is a way to mitigate developing ambiguous threats before they manifest themselves and then spiral out of control.

Findings
– Corporate leaders can follow the example of savvy investors who use risk management insights to mitigate the effects of a potential crisis and to profit from one if it develops.

Practical implications
– Market pressures can cause firms to loosen product or investment standards incrementally, which over time can radically change a business model’s risk profile without anyone acting to mitigate it.

Originality/value
– This guide to Strategic Risk Management provides insight into how corporate leaders can identify the “weak signals” of a financial crisis well before the actual crisis develops and also describes how they can mitigate financial risk in their portfolios and make opportunistic investments and adopt hedging strategies at very favorable price levels.
Three ideas for creating new value through managing risk in today’s dynamic environment
Authors: Leavy Brian 
Published: January 2015

Purpose
– The hyper-competitive environment clearly places a premium on innovation, entrepreneurship and adaptability. Less obvious is the premium that it also places on new approaches to identifying and managing risk and the hidden opportunities for value creation that lie therein. This masterclass aims to identify three books that show how risk management produces new opportunities for advantage.

Design/methodology/approach
– The masterclass discusses the approaches to risk management offered in The Risk-Driven Business Model by technology and innovation experts, Karan Girotra and Serguei Netessine; in Niraj Dawar’s book, Tilt: Shifting Your Strategy from Products to Customers and in The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age by Reid Hoffman, co-founder and chairman of LinkedIn, and his co-authors Ben Casnocha and Chris Yeh.

Findings
– Key choices you make in designing your business models will either increase or decrease two important types of risk, information risk and incentive-alignment risk. Downstream activities “aimed” at reducing customers’ costs and risks are rapidly emerging as the new “drivers” of value creation and competitiveness.

Practical implications
– The “central principle” underlying the new approach to talent risk management is “reciprocity” or mutual investment and obligation as a way of mitigating risk to both employer and employee […] The most innovative implementation practice is hiring employees for defined “tours of duty,” a concept borrowed from the military.

Originality/value
– This masterclass discusses three different approaches to managing risk and explains how they can be used to create customer value in a hyper-competitive environment.
Long‐term declines in multiple waterbird species in a tidal embayment, south‐east Australia
Authors: Hansen Birgita D. , Menkhorst Peter , Moloney Paul , Loyn Richard H. 
Published: January 2015

AbstractWorldwide, local extinctions and severe declines in waterbird densities are being reported from many important waterbird sites. Waterbird sites often exist as a network, collectively providing crucial habitat for different life history stages of different species. Therefore, population changes at one site may strongly influence others. In Australia, many waterbird species are highly mobile, and move rapidly over long distances in response to rainfall. Large tidal wetlands often serve as drought refugia or alternative breeding habitat for these species. These sites are also the migration terminus of many species of shorebirds that spend their non‐breeding season in Australia. One such site in south‐eastern Australia is Western Port, a Ramsar‐listed tidal embayment forming part of the East Asian–Australasian Shorebird Site Network. We measured waterbird population trends over nearly 40 years in Western Port to see whether changes showed consistent trends over time across multiple species. Thirty‐nine species were recorded often enough to allow an analysis of trends over time using dynamic linear models and, where appropriate, piecewise linear regression. Twenty‐two species had declined, including four species of duck, five species of fish‐eating bird (cormorants, terns and pelicans), one species each of grebe, gull and heron, and 10 species of shorebird. Only two species (Australian pied oystercatcher Haematopus longirostris and straw‐necked ibis Threskiornis spinicollis) increased significantly over the same time period. Patterns of decline in non‐migratory waterbirds may reflect diminishing wetland availability, local reductions in fish prey, increased predation pressure and changes in inland wetland resources. Declines in migratory shorebirds are most likely related to loss of habitat elsewhere in their trans‐equatorial migration routes. These trends in waterbirds that use Western Port reflect widespread impacts on populations elsewhere in Australia and overseas, necessitating more than simply local management of this tidal embayment.
Late two‐stage laparoscopic cholecystectomy is associated with an increased risk of major bile duct injury
Authors: Beliaev Andrei M. , Booth Michael 
Published: January 2015

AbstractBackgroundLate laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and sphincterotomy (ES) for common bile duct (CBD) stone clearance, two‐stage LC (TSLC), is associated with difficult surgical dissection and an increased rate of conversion to open procedure. The purpose of the study was to evaluate whether the interval between ERCP/ES and LC is associated with major bile duct injury (BDI) and determine an optimal period for TSLC.MethodsThis was a retrospective cohort study of adult patients who underwent LC. The exclusion criteria were absence of CBD stones on imaging or ERCP, surgical treatment of choledocholithiasis, post‐operative endoscopic CBD stone clearance and open cholecystectomy.ResultsThe eligibility criteria were met by 183 patients. There were six major BDIs (3%). Comparisons of the early and late TSLC showed statistically significant difference in major BDI at 16‐week cut‐offs. Binomial regression analysis demonstrated that late (≥16 weeks) TSLC was associated with 10‐fold increase in major BDI (95% confidence interval: 1.1–95.7, P = 0.043). Survival analysis comparing early (<16 weeks) with late (≥16 weeks) TSLC demonstrated that both groups had similar survival time (log‐rank test: 0.317).ConclusionGeneral surgeons should be aware of the increasing risk of major BDI with delaying TSLC and perform interval LC before week 16.
Comparison of intra‐operative 0.02% mitomycin C and sutureless limbal conjunctival autograft fixation in pterygium surgery: five‐year follow‐up
Authors: Jiang Jin , Gong Jingwen , Li Wenwei , Hong Chaoyang 
Published: January 2015

AbstractPurposeTo compare efficacy and safety between fibrin sealant assisted limbal conjunctival autograft fixation and intra‐operative MMC in pterygium surgery.MethodsProspective, comparative, interventional case series. Forty eyes of 40 patients with nasal primary pterygium, 18 male and 22 female, were enrolled. The patients were assigned to two groups, and each contained nine male and 11 female based on the pterygium area encroaching onto the cornea. In one group, the conjunctival autograft was attached to the sclera with fibrin sealant, and in the other group, 0.02% MMC was applied after the pterygium was removed. All the patients were followed up postoperatively on days 1, 3, 7 and 14 then at months 1, 2, 6, 12 and 60. The main outcome measures included operating time, postoperative discomfort, cornea endothelial damage, recurrence rate and complications.ResultsThe average operating time was significantly shorter (p = 0.044) in the fibrin sealant group, and fewer postoperative symptom complaints were received as well. On postoperative month 1, no significant differences in the mean endothelial cell count, mean CV and mean 6A% were observed between these two groups. By the end of 5‐year follow‐up, the recurrence rate was 0% in the fibrin sealant group and 20% in the MMC group (p = 0.106), and there were no severe visual acuity threatening complications in either group.ConclusionThere were no severe complications after long‐term follow‐up if intra‐operative MMC was strictly and carefully used. Overall, this sutureless method is more effective than traditional MMC.
Irritable bowel syndrome is significantly associated with somatisation in 840 patients, which may drive bloating
Authors: Patel P. , Bercik P. , Morgan D. G. , Bolino C. , Pintos‐Sanchez M. I. , Moayyedi P. , Ford A. C. 
Published: January 2015

SummaryBackgroundPsychological factors may influence persistence and perceived severity of symptoms in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Literature suggests that somatisation is associated with IBS. However, the relationship between IBS subtype, symptoms of IBS and somatisation is unclear.AimTo examine this issue in a large cohort of secondary care patients.MethodsDemographic and gastrointestinal (GI) symptom data were collected from 4224 adult patients via the Rome III questionnaire. Somatisation data were collected using the patient health questionnaire‐12. Mean somatisation score and number of somatic symptoms were compared between IBS patients and controls with minimal GI symptoms, and between IBS subtypes using analysis of variance. Effect of level of somatisation on symptom frequency was compared according to IBS subtype using a χ2 test.Results840 patients met Rome III criteria for IBS, controls were 2137 patients with GI symptoms without IBS. Mean somatisation scores and number of somatic symptoms were higher in IBS vs. controls (P < 0.001), and in mixed stool pattern IBS (IBS‐M), vs. IBS with constipation (IBS‐C) or diarrhoea (IBS‐D) (P < 0.001). High levels of somatisation were more prevalent in IBS‐M (31.7%) vs. IBS‐C (22.5%) or IBS‐D (20.8%) (P = 0.003). For all IBS subtypes, high levels of somatisation were associated with a greater frequency of bloating or abdominal distension prior to logistic regression.ConclusionsIBS is strongly associated with higher levels of somatisation, particularly IBS‐M. Bloating may be associated with higher levels of somatisation, perhaps explaining why it can be difficult to treat.