bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Vulnerable groups in Canada and labour market exclusion
Authors: Fang Tony , Gunderson Morley 
Published: August 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to analyse the labour market exclusion of the groups in Canada that have been defined as vulnerable in that they were persistently in poverty over a defined period of time. The vulnerable groups were: unattached individuals age 45-64, disabled persons, recent immigrants, lone parents, Aboriginal persons and youth not in school.Design/methodology/approach– Five panels of data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics are used over the period from 1993 to 2010 to compare the vulnerable groups with a benchmark non-vulnerable in various dimensions: a descriptive profile of their labour market exclusion and characteristics; a portrayal of their trends in labour market exclusion; an analysis of the persistence of being excluded from the labour force; and an econometric analysis of the determinants of their probability of transitioning into the labour force and out of the labour force.Findings– The vulnerable groups tend to be disproportionately excluded from the labour force and to be persistently excluded for longer periods of time. They are generally more likely to be female, lower educated, in poorer health and to find their life to be stressful and to have recently experienced a negative life event. Exclusion from the labour market tends to trend downward over time for both the non-vulnerable benchmark group and the various vulnerable groups. There is considerable variability in the patterns across the different groups with respect to transitions into and out of the labour market.Practical implications– The labour market is a first line of defense against social and economic exclusion. While labour market exclusion is trending downward it remains stubbornly high for the vulnerable groups. Their diversity of experiences suggest a one-size-fits all solution to exclusion is not appropriate for the different vulnerable groups. Different policy initiatives are appropriate and they are discussed for each vulnerable group.Originality/value– The paper is the first to systematically examine a wide range of dimensions of the labour market exclusion of the vulnerable groups in Canada and to highlight their similarities and differences. It also highlights the various policy initiatives that are appropriate for the different groups.
Determinants of immigrant self-employment in Spain
Authors: Cueto Begoña , Rodríguez Álvarez Vanesa 
Published: August 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine immigrant self-employment in Spain. The study aims to determine the likelihood of immigrants being self-employed, the differences between Spaniards and immigrants in terms of self-employment and differences among immigrants from different regions of origin.

Design/methodology/approach
– Data from the Labour Force Survey for 2005-2011 are used for a descriptive analysis of self-employment. Logit regressions allow us to study the determinants of immigrant self-employment.

Findings
– Unlike research conducted in other countries, the rate of immigrant self-employment in Spain is lower than that of nationals, although differences exist according to the region of origin. Men and older individuals are more likely to be self-employed. Those with higher levels of education are also more likely to be self-employed – this may be attributable to the decreased availability of skilled positions for immigrants.

Research limitations/implications
– The sample size does not allow for differential analyses regarding the region of origin or the existence and influence of enclaves.

Practical implications
– Self-employment may be an opportunity for immigrants to improve their position in the labour market, especially in the case of highly skilled workers.

Originality/value
– In Spain, analyses of immigrant self-employment are rare and generally focus on case studies. However, this study covers the whole population within a highly specific economic situation.
Simple step-stress model for an extension of the exponential distribution with type-I censoring
Authors: Haghighi Firoozeh 
Published: August 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to design a simple step-stress model under type-I censoring when the failure time has an extension of the exponential distribution.Design/methodology/approach– The scale parameter of the distribution is assumed to be a log-linear function of the stress and a cumulative exposure model is hold. The maximum likelihood estimates of the parameters, as well as the corresponding Fisher information matrix are derived. Two real examples are given to show the application of an extension of the exponential distribution in reliability studies and a numerical example is presented to illustrate the method discussed here.Findings– A simple step-stress test under cumulative exposure model and type-I censoring for an extension of the exponential distribution is presented.Originality/value– The work is original.
The level of TQM application by construction contractors in Hong Kong
Authors: Lau Andrew  W.T. , Tang S.L. , Li Y.S. 
Published: August 2015

Purpose
– In 2000, the Hong Kong Government commissioned the Construction Industry Review Committee (CIRC) to provide a thorough review of the strengths/weaknesses of the Hong Kong construction industry and to recommend improvement measures. The CIRC’s report, released in 2001, recommended many improvement measures related to total quality management (TQM) principles. Despite many of these improvement recommendations being fulfilled in the ten years following the release of the report, there is a lack of literature documenting these achievements and the corresponding level of TQM application. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the level of TQM application by construction contractors in Hong Kong using a questionnaire survey.

Design/methodology/approach
– A literature review was conducted and a survey questionnaire was then designed for a full-scale survey. The data collected from the survey were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Correlations between the respondents’ scores on the survey questions were established.

Findings
– The survey findings indicate a moderately high level of application of TQM principles, reflecting a moderately high achievement in implementing the CIRC’s intended improvements. The TQM application level is comparable to that of Singapore, which is also a country with a high Chinese population. The findings further suggest that organisational learning and supplier management are the two major TQM principles that contractors should focus on to sustain their long-term businesses.

Practical implications
– The Hong Kong experience should be of interest to other developing and developed countries, both regionally and globally, in search of a similar paradigm for improving quality.

Originality/value
– This research is the first one done as to the level of TQM application in the Hong Kong construction industry. No one has done it before so this is the originality. The results are not only valuable to the stakeholders in construction in Hong Kong, but also to other developing and developed countries, both regionally and globally, in search of a similar paradigm for raising their quality culture.
The impact of quality culture on quality management practices and performance in Chinese manufacturing firms
Authors: Wu Sarah J. 
Published: August 2015

Purpose– One of the commonly cited problems in the implementation of quality practices is related to cultural resistance to change. While the importance of organizational culture to quality management (QM) practices has been recognized in the recent literature, little is known about how quality culture influences quality performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the mechanism of how the nurture of quality culture in a firm influences quality performance.Design/methodology/approach– This study empirically assesses the path from quality culture to infrastructure practices, core practices, and finally to quality performance using data collected from 397 Chinese manufacturing firms in a structural equitation model.Findings– The results indicate a chain effect that quality culture serves as an antecedent for infrastructure practices to take effect and infrastructure practices provide a supporting foundation for core practices to generate positive impact on quality performance. Anything that breaks on the chain will cause a problem in quality practices implementation.Originality/value– The results of this study contribute to understanding the cultural implications for successful QM implementation. The study emphasizes that quality implementation needs to be considered as a system work where culture is an indispensible part. This offers practical insights of how firms operating in China could build quality advantages other than cost.
Marketing communications in a post-modern world
Authors: Kitchen Philip J. , Proctor Tony 
Published: August 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss information accessibility in today’s world alongside the accompanying demise of corporate invisibility. This is an ever-present communications reality for businesses and consumers in the twenty-first century.Design/methodology/approach– This paper reviews the relevant extant literature relating to economic, social and technological developments and their impact on the post-modern world of marketing communications. It discusses the rip tides of change that impact on that world. Discussion focuses on the changing global environment as a backdrop to observing new trends in the marketplace underpinned by an information explosion. Consumer typologies and their significance are considered generationally in terms of X, Y and Z and explored in the context of postmodernism.Findings– The pace of change in marketplaces and market-spaces everywhere is continuous and accelerating. Inexorably – and perhaps inevitably – marketing communications are changing shape, metamorphosing into new configurations and forms as a result of underlying technological changes and in the face of ongoing recessionary influences. For the first time in history, people are exerting more influence and control over marketing processes. Medias are moving in tandem with the technological drivers, implying that managers, brands and companies should all be proactive in taking advantage of the changing times.Practical implications– Different communications are needed for different markets, but always based on a sound understanding of the dynamics of the markets they address. Not only is an understanding of the needs and wants of different generations important, but also the different economic, social and cultural settings in which consumption takes place.Social implications– Constant technological change is here to stay and has consequences for the ways companies design and implement marketing communications.Originality/value– This paper is original in its assessment of the problems of creating effective marketing communication and in highlighting the issues facing companies in today’s post-modern world. Using generational types presents an interesting way of examining and addressing different markets with different needs.
Managing the wickedness of socially responsible marketing
Authors: Fodness Dale 
Published: August 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to identify the wicked problems inherent in socially responsible marketing and to provide practical insights into their management.

Design/methodology/approach
– This paper applies learning from three related conceptual areas (the Cynefin framework, complexity science and wicked problems) to think about sustainable marketing in new ways.

Findings
– Sustainability challenges the effectiveness of traditional marketing thought and action. New and emerging approaches and tools in sense-making, complexity science and problem recognition are needed to help ensure the successful development and implementation of sustainable marketing.

Originality/value
– Growing concern for so-called “wicked problems” appears in the literature of a number of disciplines in both the hard and soft sciences. Although the concept has appeared in the management and strategy literature, it is relatively unknown in marketing.
Gut feelings of safety: tolerance to the microbiota mediated by innate immune receptors
Authors: Swiatczak Bartlomiej , Cohen Irun R. 
Published: August 2015

ABSTRACTTo enable microbial colonization of the gut mucosa, the intestinal immune system must not only react to danger signals but also recognize cues that indicate safety. Recognition of safety, paradoxically, is mediated by the same environmental sensors that are involved in signaling danger. Indeed, in addition to their well‐established role in inducing inflammation in response to stress signals, pattern recognition receptors and a variety of metabolic sensors also promote gut‐microbiota symbiosis by responding to “microbial symbiosis factors”, “resolution‐associated molecular patterns”, markers of energy extraction and other signals indicating the absence of pathogenic infection and tissue damage. Here we focus on how the paradoxical roles of immune receptors and other environmental sensors define the microbiota signature of an individual.
Comparative study of the validity of three regions of the 18S‐rRNA gene for massively parallel sequencing‐based monitoring of the planktonic eukaryote community
Authors: Tanabe Akifumi S. , Nagai Satoshi , Hida Kohsuke , Yasuike Motoshige , Fujiwara Atushi , Nakamura Yoji , Takano Yoshihito , Katakura Seiji 
Published: August 2015

AbstractThe nuclear 18S‐rRNA gene has been used as a metabarcoding marker in massively parallel sequencing (MPS)‐based environmental surveys for plankton biodiversity research. However, different hypervariable regions have been used in different studies, and their utility has been debated among researchers. In this study, detailed investigations into 18S‐rRNA were carried out; we investigated the effective number of sequences deposited in international nucleotide sequence databases (INSDs), the amplification bias, and the amplicon sequence variability among the three variable regions, V1–3, V4–5 and V7–9, using in silico polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification based on INSDs. We also examined the primer universality and the taxonomic identification power, using MPS‐based environmental surveys in the Sea of Okhotsk, to determine which region is more useful for MPS‐based monitoring. The primer universality was not significantly different among the three regions, but the number of sequences deposited in INSDs was markedly larger for the V4–5 region than for the other two regions. The sequence variability was significantly different, with the highest variability in the V1–3 region, followed by the V7–9 region, and the lowest variability in the V4–5 region. The results of the MPS‐based environmental surveys showed significantly higher identification power in the V1–3 and V7–9 regions than in the V4–5 region, but no significant difference was detected between the V1–3 and V7–9 regions. We therefore conclude that the V1–3 region will be the most suitable for future MPS‐based monitoring of natural eukaryote communities, as the number of sequences deposited in INSDs increases.
A novel environmental DNA approach to quantify the cryptic invasion of non‐native genotypes
Authors: Uchii Kimiko , Doi Hideyuki , Minamoto Toshifumi 
Published: August 2015

AbstractThe invasion of non‐native species that are closely related to native species can lead to competitive elimination of the native species and/or genomic extinction through hybridization. Such invasions often become serious before they are detected, posing unprecedented threats to biodiversity. A Japanese native strain of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) has become endangered owing to the invasion of non‐native strains introduced from the Eurasian continent. Here, we propose a rapid environmental DNA‐based approach to quantitatively monitor the invasion of non‐native genotypes. Using this system, we developed a method to quantify the relative proportion of native and non‐native DNA based on a single‐nucleotide polymorphism using cycling probe technology in real‐time PCR. The efficiency of this method was confirmed in aquarium experiments, where the quantified proportion of native and non‐native DNA in the water was well correlated to the biomass ratio of native and non‐native genotypes. This method provided quantitative estimates for the proportion of native and non‐native DNA in natural rivers and reservoirs, which allowed us to estimate the degree of invasion of non‐native genotypes without catching and analysing individual fish. Our approach would dramatically facilitate the process of quantitatively monitoring the invasion of non‐native conspecifics in aquatic ecosystems, thus revealing a promising method for risk assessment and management in biodiversity conservation.
The microbial community structure of the cotton rat nose
Authors: Chaves‐Moreno Diego , Plumeier Iris , Kahl Silke , Krismer Bernhard , Peschel Andreas , Oxley Andrew P. A. , Jauregui Ruy , Pieper Dietmar H. 
Published: August 2015

SummaryThe cotton rat nose is commonly used as a model for Staphylococcus aureus colonization, as it is both physiologically and anatomically comparable to the human nares and can be easily colonized by this organism. However, while the colonization of the human anterior nares has been extensively studied, the microbial community structure of cotton rat noses has not been reported so far. We describe here the microbial community structure of the cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus) nose through next‐generation sequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons covering the V1‐V2 region and the analysis of nearly full length 16S rRNA genes of the major phylotypes. Roughly half of the microbial community was composed of two undescribed species of the genus Campylobacter, with phylotypes belonging to the genera Catonella, Acholeplasma, Streptobacillus and Capnocytophaga constituting the predominant community members. Thus, the nasal community of the cotton rat is uniquely composed of several novel bacterial species and may not reflect the complex interactions that occur in human anterior nares. Mammalian airway microbiota may, however, be a rich source of hitherto unknown microbes.
Periodontal diagnosis in private dental practice: a case‐based survey
Authors: Bailey DL , Barrow S‐Y , Cvetkovic B , Musolino R , Wise SL , Yung C , Darby I 
Published: August 2015

AbstractBackgroundDespite the prevalence of periodontitis in Australia, there are few reports regarding periodontal diagnosis and therapies in the general dental practice setting. This study aimed to assess the degree of diagnostic accuracy in periodontal cases of Victorian general dental practitioners.MethodsFollowing ethics approval, dentists were invited to complete a scenario‐based questionnaire on the Australian Dental Association Victorian Branch (ADAVB) website. Five text‐based clinical scenarios (from a total of 10) were randomly presented, representing patients with a range of disease levels from periodontal health/gingivitis to severe periodontitis, and respondents were asked what examinations they would usually perform. Based upon the presented results of periodontal and radiographic examinations, a periodontal diagnosis was requested.ResultsOne hundred and thirty‐five dentists attempted the survey. Most were in group practice and based in Melbourne; 22.5% of respondents worked in a practice employing a hygienist. The clinical parameters most commonly measured to diagnose periodontal disease were pocket depth and mobility. The majority of respondents diagnosed health, gingivitis and mild periodontitis correctly compared to American Academy of Periodontology guidelines. However, moderate periodontitis tended to be diagnosed as severe.ConclusionsDentists in Victoria used appropriate clinical parameters when assessing periodontal disease and were generally accurate in their diagnoses. There is a need for consensus regarding diagnostic definitions.
Unopposed Estrogen Supplementation/Progesterone Deficiency in Post‐Reproductive Age Affects the Secretory Profile of Resident Macrophages in a Tissue‐Specific Manner in the Rat
Authors: Stanojević Stanislava , Kovačević‐Jovanović Vesna , Dimitrijević Mirjana , Vujić Vesna , Ćuruvija Ivana , Blagojević Veljko , Leposavić Gordana 
Published: August 2015

ProblemThe influence of unopposed estrogen replacement/isolated progesterone deficiency on macrophage production of pro‐inflammatory/anti‐inflammatory mediators in the post‐reproductive age was studied.Method of studyConsidering that in the rats post‐ovariectomy the circulating estradiol, but not progesterone level rises to the values in sham‐operated controls, 20‐month‐old rats ovariectomized at the age of 10 months served as an experimental model. Estrogen and progesterone receptor expression, secretion of pro‐ and anti‐inflammatory cytokines, and arginine metabolism end‐products were examined in splenic and peritoneal macrophages under basal conditions and following lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation in vitro.ResultsAlmost all peritoneal and a subset of splenic macrophages expressed the intracellular progesterone receptor. Ovariectomy diminished cytokine production by splenic (IL‐1β) and peritoneal (TNF‐α, IL‐1β, IL‐10) macrophages and increased the production of IL‐10 by splenic and TGF‐β by peritoneal cells under basal conditions. Following LPS stimulation, splenic macrophages from ovariectomized rats produced less TNF‐α and more IL‐10, whereas peritoneal macrophages produced less IL‐1β and TGF‐β than the corresponding cells from sham‐operated rats. Ovariectomy diminished urea production in both subpopulations of LPS‐stimulated macrophages.ConclusionAlthough long‐lasting isolated progesterone deficiency in the post‐reproductive age differentially affects cytokine production in the macrophages from distinct tissue compartments, in both subpopulations, it impairs the pro‐inflammatory/anti‐inflammatory cytokine secretory balance.
A Trust‐Based Pact in Research Biobanks. From Theory to Practice
Authors: Sanchini Virginia , Bonizzi Giuseppina , Disalvatore Davide , Monturano Massimo , Pece Salvatore , Viale Giuseppe , Di Fiore Pier Paolo , Boniolo Giovanni 
Published: August 2015

AbstractTraditional Informed Consent is becoming increasingly inadequate, especially in the context of research biobanks. How much information is needed by patients for their consent to be truly informed? How does the quality of the information they receive match up to the quality of the information they ought to receive? How can information be conveyed fairly about future, non‐predictable lines of research? To circumvent these difficulties, some scholars have proposed that current consent guidelines should be reassessed, with trust being used as a guiding principle instead of information. Here, we analyse one of these proposals, based on a Participation Pact, which is already being offered to patients at the Istituto Europeo di Oncologia, a comprehensive cancer hospital in Milan, Italy.