bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Group VIB Ca2+-independent phospholipase A2γ is associated with acute lung injury following trauma and hemorrhagic shock
Authors: Morishita Koji , Aiboshi Junichi , Kobayashi Tetsuyuki , Yokoyama Yuri , Mikami Saori , Kumagai Jiro , Onisawa Keiko , Otomo Yasuhiro 
Published: October 2013

BACKGROUND
Gut-derived mediators are carried via mesenteric lymph duct into systemic circulation after trauma/hemorrhagic shock (T/HS), thus leading to acute lung injury (ALI)/multiple-organ dysfunction syndrome. Phospholipase A2 (PLA2) is a key enzyme for the production of lipid mediators in posthemorrhagic shock mesenteric lymph (PHSML). However, the precise functions of PLA2 subtype, such as cytosolic PLA2, secretory PLA2, and Ca2+-independent PLA2, in the acute phase of inflammation have remained unclear. Our previous study has suggested that the activation of Group VIB Ca2+-independent PLA2γ (iPLA2γ) may be associated with increased lyso-phosphatidylcholines (LPCs) in the PHSML. Therefore, our purpose was to verify the role of iPLA2γ on the production of 2-polyunsaturated LPC species and the pathogenesis of T/HS-induced ALI using an iPLA2γ-specific inhibitor, R-(E)-6-(bromoethylene)-3-(1-naphthalenyl)-2H-tetrahydropyran-2-one (R-BEL).

METHODS
Male Sprague-Dawley rats were anesthetized and cannulated in blood vessels and mesenteric lymph duct. Animals in the T/HS group underwent a midline laparotomy plus hemorrhagic shock (mean arterial pressure, 35 mm Hg, 30 minutes) and 2-hour resuscitation with shed blood and 2× normal saline. Trauma/sham shock rats were performed the identical procedure without hemorrhage. R-BEL or DMSO was administered 30 minutes before T/HS or trauma/sham shock. Polyunsaturated LPCs and arachidonic acid in the PHSML were analyzed with a liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization–mass spectrometry. Furthermore, ALI was assessed by lung vascular permeability, myeloperoxidase activity, and histology.

RESULTS
T/HS increased 2-polyunsaturated LPCs and arachidonic acid in the PHSML. The R-BEL pretreatment significantly decreased these lipids and also inhibited ALI.

CONCLUSION
The iPLA2γ enzyme is possibly involved in the pathogenesis of ALI following T/HS through the mesenteric lymph pathway.
Evaluation of resuscitation fluids on endothelial glycocalyx, venular blood flow, and coagulation function after hemorrhagic shock in rats
Authors: Torres Luciana N. , Sondeen Jill L. , Ji Lisa , Dubick Michael A. , Filho Ivo Torres 
Published: October 2013

BACKGROUND
Endothelial glycocalyx (EG) plays an essential role in endothelium integrity and may be compromised by hemorrhagic shock. The effects of currently available resuscitation fluids such as Hextend (HEX) or lactated Ringer’s solution (LR) on vascular function and coagulation are not well understood. The aim of the present study was to compare the effects of fresh frozen plasma (FFP) with HEX or LR in their ability to repair EG structure, promote volume expansion, increase blood flow, and prevent coagulopathy.

METHODS
A total of 121 microvessels from cremaster muscle were studied in 32 anesthetized instrumented rats. After baseline systemic and microvascular measurements, 40% hemorrhage followed by resuscitation was performed, and measurements were repeated. Coagulation was evaluated using ROTEM to assay clot formation time, clotting time, firmness, strength, and lysis. Velocity and “platelet component” of strength were calculated. Fluorescein isothiocyanate or Texas Red bound to Dextrans was injected to estimate EG thickness in vivo.

RESULTS
Respiratory rate, blood pH, base excess, and lactate returned to near-baseline levels in all treatments. Hemodilution caused by LR and HEX decreased firmness, prolonged clotting time, and lowered platelet counts. EG thickness in HEX- and LR-treated rats was 50% lower, and plasma syndecan 1 was 50% higher than sham and FFP groups. Blood flow and shear rate were restored in the HEX group. Resuscitation with FFP improved coagulation and blood flow.

CONCLUSION
Our findings support the concept of cardiovascular and microvascular stabilization by infused FFP, in which the increase in microvascular perfusion associated with restored EG is essential for an optimal resuscitation strategy.
Pulsed dosed delivery of oxygen in mechanically ventilated pigs with acute lung injury
Authors: Gustafson Joshua D. , Yang Sung , Blakeman Thomas Chris , Dorlac Warren C. , Branson Richard 
Published: October 2013

BACKGROUND
Acute lung injury (ALI) is a condition that leads to impaired oxygen delivery. We demonstrated previously that using a portable oxygen concentrator (POC) with pulsed dose delivery of oxygen is an alternative option to conserve oxygen while still maintaining adequate oxygen delivery in a mechanical model. We hypothesized that using a modified POC, pulsed dose oxygen delivery can provide adequate oxygenation in an animal model.

METHODS
In a crossover study, we induced ALI in 15 pigs using an oleic acid model. We ventilated the pigs using equipment that is used by Critical Care Air Transport Teams of the US Air Force. We compared oxygen delivery using a POC in both continuous flow and pulsed dose modes, while in both volume-control and pressure-control mechanical ventilation.

RESULTS
The PaO2/FIO2 ratios were increased in both the continuous flow and pulsed dose delivery for volume control and pressure control. In volume control, the pulsed dose demonstrated a significant increase in the PaO2/FIO2 ratio (168.8 [96.1] vs. 91.7 [65.4], p = 0.002) compared with continuous flow. However, this was not seen in pressure-control ventilation (89.0 [74.5] vs. 79.1 [65.4], p = 0.67).

CONCLUSION
We were able to demonstrate that oxygen delivery using a POC in mechanically ventilated pigs with ALI is feasible. We were also able to demonstrate that pulsed dose delivery from a POC is superior to continuous flow oxygen delivery for oxygenation in ALI, when using volume control. We propose that this is a safe alternative to conserve oxygen in the transport of critically ill patients.
Perceived value of pasta in Greece and Romania
Authors: Dumitrescu Claudia , Nganje William , J. Shultz Clifford 
Published: October 2013

Purpose
– This study aims to provide international pasta marketers with a better understanding of how consumers perceive product value, which enables them to create and deliver value. The effects of COO, price, and content on purchase intentions are assessed.

Design/methodology/approach
– Data were collected via the survey method in Romania and Greece. Using a random utility discrete choice model, the authors test five hypotheses.

Findings
– Overall, Romanian and Greek individuals are less likely to buy US pasta; nevertheless, the likelihood that US or Italian pasta is purchased increases when this product is made from durum wheat versus soft wheat. Differences in purchase intentions due to age, gender, education, income, and nationality are also found.

Research limitations/implications
– The results have important implications for international pasta marketers, as it helps them to better understand the perceived pasta value and to position this product effectively in Greek and Romanian markets. Future studies should examine wider pasta market segmentation in the Balkans.

Originality/value
– This study contributes to the value literature by providing a framework of perceived value of foreign food products. Also, addressing concerns expressed in the literature, this study examines the COO effects on purchase intentions in a multi-cue context, focusing on low-involvement food products such as pasta. Because individual preferences for COO vary widely, the need for empirical evidence to complement theory is critical, and this is the first study with regard to Greek and Romanian consumers' intentions to buy foreign pasta.
Deriving an information security assurance indicator at the organizational level
Authors: Pathari Vinod , M. Sonar Rajendra 
Published: October 2013

Purpose
– Measurement of information security assurance (ISA) is an important but difficult task. This paper aims to propose a framework, which helps in refining information security requirements into controls whose effectiveness can be measured. This work also provides aggregation techniques to combine these measurements so as to obtain an indicator for ISA at the organizational level.

Design/methodology/approach
– A top-down approach of refining security objectives to measurable independent tasks is carried out using assign graph as the model. This captures the various objectives and their interrelationships whose initial values and relative impacts are obtained from experts. Using fuzzy cognitive model (FCM), these initial values are combined together to obtain an indicator for ISA at the firm's level.

Findings
– The two applications of the framework revealed that interrelationships do exist between the different controls employed in actual security implementations and that these dependencies are seldom accounted for. When those few controls that are to be measured are clearly identified, the security experts can focus their attention on them and ensure their correct implementation and appropriate measurement. The extent of impact of a single control on the overall security picture of the firm can also be found using this approach.

Research limitations/implications
– While the framework is generic, the assurance values obtained are context-sensitive. This is primarily because of the subjectivity involved in assigning impact measures and initial values.

Practical implications
– This work helps in answering two difficult questions in information security management: “what to measure?” and “how to quantify the overall security assurance of the organization?” This assists the information security team in identifying and refining those controls that needs to be appropriately emphasized. The proposed framework helps the top management in doing “what-if” analysis, thereby aiding their decision-making for information security investments.

Originality/value
– The novel framework proposes a top-down approach for security control refinement and a bottom-up approach for combining the confidence values to obtain an indicator for ISA. This work identifies and accommodates the possibilities of having interdependencies between security controls. The proposed aggregation method using FCM is being applied for the first time in information security context and provides convergence even in the presence of cyclic dependencies amongst the controls.
A survey of security risks of mobile social media through blog mining and an extensive literature search
Authors: He Wu 
Published: October 2013

Purpose
– As mobile malware and virus are rapidly increasing in frequency and sophistication, mobile social media has recently become a very popular attack vector. The purpose of this paper is to survey the state-of-the-art of security aspect of mobile social media, identify recent trends, and provide recommendations for researchers and practitioners in this fast moving field.

Design/methodology/approach
– This paper reviews disparate discussions in literature on security aspect of mobile social media though blog mining and an extensive literature search. Based on the detailed review, the author summarizes some key insights to help enterprises understand security risks associated with mobile social media.

Findings
– Risks related to mobile social media are identified based on the results of the review. Best practices and useful tips are offered to help enterprises mitigate risks of mobile social media. This paper also provides insights and guidance for enterprises to mitigate the security risks of mobile social media.

Originality/value
– The paper consolidates the fragmented discussion in literature and provides an in-depth review to help researchers understand the latest development of security risks associated with mobile social media.
Investor sentiment and yield spread determinants: evidence from European markets
Authors: Spyrou Spyros 
Published: October 2013

Purpose
– This paper aims to investigate the yield spread determinants for a sample of European markets in the light of the recent financial crisis. It utilises findings from two different strands in the literature: findings on bond spread determinants and findings on the effect of investor sentiment on equity returns.

Design/methodology/approach
– The explanatory variables in the regression models proxy not only for economic fundamentals (e.g. economic activity, default risk, liquidity risk, general market conditions) but also for investor sentiment. A vector autoregressive approach is employed.

Findings
– The results indicate that fundamental variables are significant for the determination of the level of yield spreads, as suggested by previous studies. Local and international investor sentiment, however, both current and past, is also a statistically significant determinant for both the level and monthly changes of yield, especially during the crisis period 2007-2011.

Research limitations/implications
– The implication of this finding is significant for all parties involved: government officials, private lenders, EU/ECB/IMF officials, and market participants.

Practical implications
– Focusing solely on quantitative economic performance indicators may not have the desirable effect of reducing borrowing rates and facilitating the return to economic stability. Perhaps, reassuring and/or sending strong qualitative signals to financial markets may be as important. Involved agents may have to address not only technical financial issues but also the perception that market participants have about the proposed solutions to the crisis and eventually affect market sentiment.

Originality/value
– The issue of the effect of investor sentiment on government yield spreads during a crisis has not been investigated before.
Energy consumption, pollution and economic development in 16 emerging countries
Authors: Al-mulali Usama , Normee Che Sab Che 
Published: October 2013

Purpose
– This study aims to investigate the impact of total primary energy consumption and CO2 emissions on the economic development in 16 emerging countries.

Design/methodology/approach
– The panel model was used taking the period 1980-2008.

Findings
– The results showed that a long-run relationship is present between total primary energy consumption, CO2 emission, and economic development in the countries under investigation. It was also found that both total primary energy consumption have a positive causal relationship with the economic development and other economic aspects playing an important role in achieving high economic performance with the consequence of higher pollution.

Practical implications
– The main recommendation of this study is to increase their investment and government spending on green energy projects to increase the share of green energy out of their total energy consumption. This can be considered a good solution for their energy woes.

Originality/value
– Different from the previous studies, it was also found that total primary energy consumption have a positive causal relationship with the economic development and other economic aspects playing an important role in achieving high economic performance with the consequence of higher pollution. In addition, there are a number of countries that had not investigated before.
Informal economy and spatial mobility: are informal workers economic refugees?
Authors: Arbex Marcelo , Freguglia Ricardo , Chein Flavia 
Published: October 2013

Purpose
– The paper aims to focus the attention on a particular segment of the labor market – informal workers. Despite a large literature on migration, interesting and relevant questions remain to be studied. The paper investigates whether informal workers could be compared to political refugees in terms of their performance in the source and in the destination economies. The paper estimates the effects of wage differentials, education and other personal and labor market controls on the probability of migration.

Design/methodology/approach
– The paper studies empirically the probability of migration of workers engaged in informal activities in Brazil using a binary choice model (probit) with particular attention to the self-selection problem of migrants. The paper uses data from the Informal Urban Economy Survey (IBGE).

Findings
– The results show that the probability of migration of informal workers is negatively related to a worker's education level. The paper finds that the probability of migration is increasing in the ability bias and in wage differentials. The results bring new evidence regarding the possibility of negative selection of migrants considering their observable characteristics, while it corroborates a positive selection of ability or unobservable characteristics of informal worker migrants. The paper presents evidence that less-educated workers are more likely to migrate and show that informal workers migrants behave as economic refugees.

Originality/value
– To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper to study the migration of workers engaged in informal activities.
Institutions and growth: a developing country case study
Authors: Nakabashi Luciano , Elisa Gonçalves Pereira Ana , Sachsida Adolfo 
Published: October 2013

Purpose
– The Brazilian municipalities show a huge disparity in income level. The GDP per capita difference between the richest and the poorest municipalities is about 190 times, according to IBGE (2000) database. This paper aims to analyze the impacts of Brazilian municipalities institutional quality on their levels of per capita income.

Design/methodology/approach
– Institutionalist theory provides a plausible explanation for the gap among municipalities income level. Many empirical studies based on cross-country data have found a high correlation between institutional quality and the level of economic development, but there is little research concerning the extreme inequality within the national territory and its relationship with institutional quality. The theory suggests that the institutions matter for the level of economic development because of their effects on political power distribution, generation of economic opportunities, innovation, human capital accumulation, and so on.

Findings
– Overall, an increase by one point in the average quality of the institutions is able to increase the average GDP per capita around 20 percent. This means that each point of increase in the quality of the municipality institutions is able to increase the municipality GDP per capita by R$1,000 (around US$600).

Originality/value
– This is an important research that sheds light to the importance of institutional quality at local level and its influence over growth in a developing country.
An investigation on competitiveness in services: Turkey versus European Union
Authors: Hiziroglu Mahmut , Hiziroglu Abdulkadir , Hulusi Kokcam Abdullah 
Published: October 2013

Purpose– The aim of this study is to investigate the competitiveness of the selected services in Turkey in comparison with the EU and the selected EU countries based on three comparative advantage indices.Design/methodology/approach– Three different revealed comparative advantage indices were utilised in a combined way. Import and export figures of six service sectors were taken into account for the period of 2000-2010. The selected services are: transportation, travel, construction, financial services and insurance, communications and IT services, and personal, cultural and recreational services. Consistency of the results was achieved through correlation analyses.Findings– Strong comparative advantages exist for Turkey in construction, tourism and transportation sectors. Although Turkish financial and insurance and communication and computer-information sectors appear to be weak compared to EU, there is a substantial potential for improvement.Originality/value– A detailed comparative investigation of services' competitiveness for Turkey was provided. The policy decision makers in Turkey and in Europe's selected countries can utilise the findings and recommendations of the study for projection of the investigated sectors.
CEO compensation in China
Authors: Xiao Zhongyi , He Rui , Lin Zhangxi , Elkins Hamilton 
Published: October 2013

Purpose
– This study investigates the determinants of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) cash compensation in relation to corporate governance and performance in China's listed firms. This article also aims at analyzing gender earning differentials among CEOs.

Design/methodology/approach
– The empirical analysis is based on the panel data set which contains information on the CEOs of 1,701 firm-year observations over the period 2006-2010. A Oaxaca decomposition is also implemented to measure the gap between male and female CEO compensation.

Findings
– The paper observes that CEO compensation relies more on firm accounting performance than on stock market performance. This relationship is especially evident when accounting performance is measured as the return-on-assets. Dominant shareholders such as the state and block holders have a distinct impact on the use of incentive pay. The presence of a compensation committee in a Chinese listed firm is correlated with an excessive pay package for the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), even though there is evidence that pay-for-performance is more likely in the presence of a compensation committee. Furthermore, this context extends the international body of evidence on CEO compensation by offering a novel accounting of the gender gap in pay among China's listed firms. Examination of the dataset reveals that women represent approximately 6.8 percent of CEOs. In keeping with international norms, female CEOs are more senior and better educated than their male counterparts, yet they receive less favorable compensation. The Oaxaca decomposition shows a larger unexplained part of the pay-gap and suggests that the gender statistically explains a great deal of the gap in pay between male and female CEOs across China's listed firms.

Originality/value
– This article contributes to the international corporate governance literature and implications for the design of good corporate governance for China's listed firms. Moreover, this article also highlights the current gender gap among CEOs in compensation.
The “Greenest Department Competition”: an exemplary student-led project
Authors: Antal Miklós 
Published: October 2013

Purpose
– A student-led department greening competition brought significant change to certain departments at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary. The purpose of the paper is to help sustainability groups at other tertiary education institutions to organize similar competitions.

Design/methodology/approach
– First, the approach and methodology of the competition are explained in detail. Second, results of the competition in the first three years are summarized. Third, opportunities for improvement are discussed. Fourth, potentials and limitations are reviewed. Finally, the most important success criteria are listed.

Findings
– Eight weeks of assisted learning and two audit-based assessments are appropriate to facilitate the greening process of departments. To successfully organize a competition, a reliable team with a core group of at least five to six experienced members is needed. Maximal effectiveness can only be achieved if local environmental leaders at departments are activated.

Practical implications
– If local environmental leaders act as internal project managers, environmental practices can change significantly. Improvements can affect material and energy use, transportation behavior and external outreach activities.

Originality/value
– The project description shows a structure for how to engage in greening departments. A consistent rubric was applied across multiple departments over a span of three years, which allows for drawing general conclusions. Insights can facilitate similarly effective projects elsewhere.