bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
How Australian manufacturing firms perceive and understand the concepts of agility and flexibility in the supply chain
Authors: Fayezi Sajad , Zutshi Ambika , O'Loughlin Andrew 
Published: January 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to address an important question which centres on investigating how do manufacturing businesses perceive and understand the concepts of agility and flexibility in their supply chains (SCs).Design/methodology/approach– A case study approach was utilised and data were gathered from semi-structured interviews with ten organisations in the Australian manufacturing sector. Data analysis was conducted using analytic techniques based on, for example, pattern matching and cross-case synthesis.Findings– Findings confirmed that there is some ambiguity concerning the understanding of the terms agile and flexible, both within and between organisations. The implications are that there is often little consistency in the way the terms are operationalised and then applied. In this regard, and to inform future research, the paper offers empirically grounded definitions for SC agility and flexibility. Moreover, four propositions are developed and discussed which shed light on the dynamics of agility and flexibility in the SC.Originality/value– This is one of the first empirical studies to address some of the apparent inconsistencies between organisational applications of agility and flexibility, and their impact on SC operations.
Establishing a competencies framework for a Caribbean academic library
Authors: Robinson Karlene P , Runcie Rosemarie , Manassi Tanya Marie , Mckoy-Johnson Faith 
Published: January 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to reset the performance bar for the Caribbean professional through the identification and classification of core competencies and skills sets for academic librarians at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus.

Design/methodology/approach
– Competency documents published by various library profession organizations and academic libraries across various geographic regions were content analysed to identify the major skills and competencies of highly skilled professionals.

Findings
– Core competencies selected for The UWI Mona Library are: first, uses professional knowledge and practice to lead staff and manage resources; second, identifies emerging trends and supports innovations; third, demonstrate willingness to embrace change and utilize best practices in service delivery; fourth, analyses situations for appropriate solutions; fifth, interacts positively and effectively with others; sixth, develops an environment that leads and manages change; seventh, manages and mentors staff; eight, sets clear goals and objectives while providing specific performance and feedback.

Research limitations/implications
– The competencies profile developed reflects the unique compositions of competencies required by academic librarians working in a twenty-first century, Caribbean, regional, academic/research environment.

Practical implications
– This framework will effectively guide the exercises of employee selection and succession planning within the library organization. Ensuring that the best employees are selected augurs well for succession planning within an organization.

Social implications
– A competencies profile provides rationale for the provision of transparent employee selection criteria. The framework is intended to set meaningful professional development goals and align those goals with the vision, mission and objectives of organizations.

Originality/value
– This paper presents the English-speaking Caribbean context for core competencies formulation and a listing of required competencies for The UWI, Mona Library professional.
New lessons for leaders about continuous innovation
Authors: Denning Stephen 
Published: January 2015

Purpose
– After firms have made a technological breakthrough they need to practice continuous innovation to delight their customers so they will be able to keep dominating those markets in an enduring fashion. This masterclass aims to address the question, “So what’s involved in this rapid innovation?”

Design/methodology/approach
– To answer the question, the author looks first at a primer, What is DevOps? by Mike Loukides. It describes the continuing acceleration in innovation in software development. To illustrate best practice the author looks at the case of Software developer Etsy.

Findings
– In leading firms, instead of management approval being required for all changes, now all improvements that have been fully tested are deployed immediately – Within the broad strategic framework, the staff is authorized to proceed with continuous improvement.

Practical implications
– The reality is that most firms today, whether they know it or not, are already software companies and will steadily become more so. Their competence in dealing with software will be a key part of their competitive edge – or lack thereof.

Originality/value
– For leaders in all markets the lesson is – networked organizations using agile management practices and continuous deployment with a culture of trust, delegation and collaboration are able to move and innovate much more rapidly than traditional managements that are saddled with legacy cultures of hierarchical bureaucracy.
Learning and knowledge: a dream or nightmare for employees
Authors: Newman Nadine , Newman Dunstan 
Published: January 2015

Purpose– The paper aims to focus on the issues relating to the concepts of knowledge management (KM) and the learning organization and discusses the relationship between these concepts and the issues of power and control. It looks at Coopey’s (1998) critical review of the “Foucauldian gloom” with regard to the learning organization and helps to assess whether the concept is a dream or a nightmare for the employees and the organizations as a whole. While both concepts have many positive attributes and have helped to transform many organizations, the issues of power, control, trust and empowerment have been overlooked and disregarded. This paper will attempt to answer some of these questions.Design/methodology/approach– This paper presents an analysis of literature in the field of KM and learning organizations and its relationship with the concepts of power, control and trust.Findings– This paper shows that one of the main features of the management of organizational culture is to comprehend and effectively deal with the perceived connection involving knowledge, learning and power in organizations. It notes that while some writers are disproving of the learning perception in research on organizations, they also obscure issues of politics and power in organizations and do not focus on the more important question of whose interests are being provided. To spread democracy and liberation and create a democratic utopia in the learning organization requires more focus on the issue of power in the concepts of the learning organization and KM.Originality/value– This paper will bring together research which links learning, knowledge and power. It also builds on the literature in learning and KM and offers essential information to human resource practitioners.
Affirmative action in Israel: Access to academia for the ultra‐orthodox community
Authors: Marcus Shelley , Josman Naomi , Zlotnik Sharon 
Published: January 2015

Background/AimThis article explores the development of a unique, culturally sensitive, designated academic occupational therapy programme for the Ultra‐Orthodox (Haredi) minority in Israel. This normative university environment did not provide the opportunity for Haredi participation due to the lack of consideration of the strong commitment to a modest way of life of this community. This prevented their participation in academia and resultant employment that are necessary for economic advancement of the community.MethodA follow‐up survey that tracked the programme's graduates’ participation in the workforce was used to determine the success of the initial goal of the establishment of the designated programme.ResultsSlightly above 97% of the respondents worked as occupational therapists during the first year after completing their bachelor's degree. The employment data obtained from the graduates showed that the central goal of the Council of Higher Education has been achieved. The designated culturally adapted occupational therapy programme has provided varied employment opportunities for its graduates in diverse professional environments.ConclusionWith the implementation of this programme, the occupational therapy department of the University of Haifa has created greater accessibility of the profession to both the occupational therapy providers and the recipients of occupational therapy intervention as well as serve as a model for other communities.
Crises and Paradigm Shift
Authors: MACKINTOSH STUART P. M. 
Published: January 2015

AbstractCrises can force leaders and technocrats together, highlight failures and, more rarely, precipitate changes in ideological worldview and the prevailing consensus. In 2007–8, the worst financial and economic crises since the Great Depression of 1929 caused a paradigm shift in financial and regulatory ideology. G20 leaders and central bankers reasserted collective power and authority over financial markets and global banks to an extent and in a manner not seen since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in 1971. The retreat of state authority reversed direction. The spell of the ‘mystical Anglo‐Saxon model of liberalisation and deregulation’ was broken. In 2014 the paradigm shift is still underway and still under attack by recalcitrant bank CEOs and their lobbyists, but the shift may be durable—signalling a major change in international regulation of the world's largest financial markets and firms.
Policy Inertia and the Persistence of Systemic Fragility
Authors: MÜGGE DANIEL 
Published: January 2015

AbstractMany observers have diagnosed a fundamental shift in financial regulation since the 2008 crisis. In contrast, this article argues that changes have mostly been superficial. The ideas underpinning regulation have been adapted rather than overturned. Our financial system remains highly fragile, even if exceptionally loose monetary policy obscures such fragility temporarily. Governments show little appetite to correct the lopsided relationship between the financial sector and the real economy and turn the sector into a reliable engine of prosperity and stability rather than a continued source of systemic risk.
‘It's something you have to put up with’—service users’ experiences of in utero transfer: a qualitative study
Authors: Porcellato L , Masson G , O'Mahony F , Jenkinson S , Vanner T , Cheshire K , Perkins E 
Published: January 2015

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to gain in‐depth insight and enhance understanding of service users’ experiences of the in utero transfer (IUT) process, in order to inform policy and improve the current service provision of maternal care.DesignQualitative descriptive study using semi‐structured interviews.SettingParticipant's home or hospital in the Midlands, UK.PopulationFifteen women transferred in utero to a tertiary level maternity hospital; five male partners and two grandmothers.MethodsAudio‐recorded individual or paired semi‐structured interviews transcribed verbatum and analysed thematically using nvivo 9.Main outcome measuresFacilitators and barriers of the IUT experience.ResultsFindings suggest that IUT is an emotional experience that financially disadvantages patients and their families. Male partners were perceived to be most negatively affected by the experience. The quality of the IUT experience was influenced by a range of factors, including the lack of proximity to home and the lack of information. Patients had little knowledge or awareness of IUT, and most felt unprepared for displacement. Despite this, there was resigned acceptance that IUT was a necessary rather than adverse experience.ConclusionsThe experience of IUT for service users could be enhanced by ensuring that they are better informed about the process and the circumstances that necessitate displacement, that they are better informed about the hospital to which they are being transferred, and that they are transferred as close to home as possible. Efforts to minimise the emotional and socio‐economic impact of IUT on women and their families also need to be considered.
Diagnostic value of protein chips constructed by lung‐cancer‐associated markers selected by the T7 phage display library
Authors: Li Hong‐Mei , Guo Kang , Yu Zhuang , Feng Rui , Xu Ping 
Published: January 2015

AbstractBackgroundTraditional diagnostic technology with tumor biomarkers is inefficient, expensive and requires a large number of serum samples. The purpose of this study was to construct human lung cancer protein chips with new lung cancer biomarkers screened by the T7‐phage display library, and improve the early diagnosis rate of lung cancer.MethodsA T7‐phage cDNA display library was constructed of fresh samples from 30 lung cancer patients. With biopanning and high‐throughput screening, we gained the immunogenic phage clones from the cDNA library. The insert of selected phage was blasted at GeneBank for alignment to find the exact or the most similar known genes. Protein chips were then constructed and used to assay their expression level in lung cancer serum from 217 cases of lung cancer groups:80 cases of benign lung disease and 220 healthy controls.ResultsAfter four rounds of Biopanning and two rounds of enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay, 12 phage monoclonal samples were selected from 2880 phage monoclonal samples. After blasting at GeneBank, six similar genes were used to construct diagnostic protein chips. The protein chips were then used to assay expression level in lung cancer serum. The expression level of six genes in lung cancer groups was significantly higher than those in the other two groups (P < 0.05).ConclusionsIn this study, we successfully constructed diagnostic protein chips with biomarkers selected from the lung cancer T7‐phage cDNA library, which can be used for the early screening of lung cancer patients.
Recruitment in a social carnivore before and after harvest
Authors: Ausband D. E. , Stansbury C. R. , Stenglein J. L. , Struthers J. L. , Waits L. P. 
Published: January 2015

AbstractKnowledge about recruitment in a population can be critical when making conservation decisions, particularly for harvested species. Harvest can affect population demography in complex ways and this may be particularly true for cooperatively breeding species whose successful reproduction is often linked with complex social dynamics. We currently have a poor understanding of how harvest affects recruitment in cooperatively breeding species. We used non‐invasive genetic sampling and a natural experiment to estimate recruitment in a population of gray wolves Canis lupus before and after harvest in the northern Rocky Mountains, US (2008–2013). We hypothesized that recruitment would decline after hunting and trapping began and that the decline in recruitment would be attributable to the harvest of pups and not to the subtler mechanisms associated with group dynamics and reduced reproductive success. We collected fecal samples from wolves in 10 packs for 6 consecutive years, extracted DNA and genotyped 154 individual pups across 18 microsatellite loci. Population harvest rates averaged 23.8% (sd = 9.2). Our hypothesis that recruitment would decline was supported; survival from 3 to 15 months of age decreased from 0.60 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.48–0.72] without harvest to 0.38 (95% CI: 0.28–0.48) with harvest and recruitment declined from 3.2 (95% CI: 2.1–4.3) to 1.6 (95% CI: 1.1–2.1) pups per pack after harvest was initiated. We cannot unequivocally dismiss other factors that could have reduced recruitment, however, an increase in recruitment when harvest temporarily ceased lends support to our conclusion that harvest reduced recruitment. We attributed just 18–38% of pup mortality directly to harvest and suggest that there are indirect effects of harvest on recruitment that may be associated with changes in group size and structure. Models that do not include both direct and indirect effects of harvest on recruitment may underestimate the potential impact of harvest on population growth in social species.
Pharmacokinetic interactions among imatinib, bosentan and sildenafil, and their clinical implications in severe pulmonary arterial hypertension
Authors: Renard Didier , Bouillon Thomas , Zhou Ping , Flesch Gerard , Quinn Debbie 
Published: January 2015

AimsThis study characterized the population pharmacokinetics (PK) of imatinib in patients with severe pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), investigated drug–drug interactions (DDI) among imatinib, sildenafil and bosentan, and evaluated their clinical implications.MethodsPlasma concentrations of imatinib, bosentan and sildenafil were collected in a phase III study and were used to characterize the PK of imatinib in this population. DDIs among the three drugs were quantified using a linear mixed model and log‐transformed drug concentrations.ResultsThe population mean estimates of apparent clearance (CL/F) and volume (V/F) were 10.8 l h–1 (95% CI 9.2, 12.4 l h–1) and 267 l (95% CI 208, 326 l), respectively. It was estimated that sildenafil concentrations increased, on average, by 64% (95% CI 32%, 103%) and bosentan concentrations by 51% (95% CI 12%, 104%), in the presence of imatinib. Despite increased concentrations of co‐medications, treatment differences between imatinib and placebo for change in 6 min walk distance and pulmonary vascular resistance were relatively constant across the entire concentration range for sildenafil and bosentan. Overall, higher concentrations of imatinib and bosentan were not associated with increasing liver enzymes (serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminases [SGOT]/serum glutamic‐pyruvic transaminase [SGPT]).ConclusionsPopulation PKs of imatinib in patients with severe PAH were found comparable with those of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia. Imatinib was found effective regardless of the co‐medications and showed intrinsic efficacy beyond merely elevating the concentrations of the co‐medications due to DDIs. There was no evidence of increased risk of liver toxicity upon co‐administration with bosentan.
Cryptotanshinone, an orally bioactive herbal compound from Danshen, attenuates atherosclerosis in apolipoprotein E‐deficient mice: role of lectin‐like oxidized LDL receptor‐1 (LOX‐1)
Authors: Liu Zhiping , Xu Suowen , Huang Xiaoyang , Wang Jiaojiao , Gao Si , Li Hong , Zhou Changhua , Ye Jiantao , Chen Shaorui , Jin Zheng‐Gen , Liu Peiqing 
Published: January 2015

Background and PurposeCryptotanshinone (CTS) is a major bioactive diterpenoid isolated from Danshen, an eminent medicinal herb that is used to treat cardiovascular disorders in Asian medicine. However, it is not known whether CTS can prevent experimental atherosclerosis. The present study was designed to investigate the protective effects of CTS on atherosclerosis and its molecular mechanisms of action.Experimental ApproachApolipoprotein E‐deficient (ApoE−/−) mice, fed an atherogenic diet, were dosed daily with CTS (15, 45 mg kg−1 day−1) by oral gavage. In vitro studies were carried out in oxidized LDL (oxLDL)‐stimulated HUVECs treated with or without CTS.Key ResultsCTS significantly attenuated atherosclerotic plaque formation and enhanced plaque stability in ApoE−/− mice by inhibiting the expression of lectin‐like oxLDL receptor‐1 (LOX‐1) and MMP‐9, as well as inhibiting reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and NF‐κB activation. CTS treatment significantly decreased the levels of serum pro‐inflammatory mediators without altering the serum lipid profile. In vitro, CTS decreased oxLDL‐induced LOX‐1 mRNA and protein expression and, thereby, inhibited LOX‐1‐mediated adhesion of monocytes to HUVECs, by reducing the expression of adhesion molecules (intracellular adhesion molecule 1 and vascular cellular adhesion molecule 1). Furthermore, CTS inhibited NADPH oxidase subunit 4 (NOX4)‐mediated ROS generation and consequent activation of NF‐κB in HUVECs.Conclusions and ImplicationsCTS was shown to have anti‐atherosclerotic activity, which was mediated through inhibition of the LOX‐1‐mediated signalling pathway. This suggests that CTS is a vasculoprotective drug that has potential therapeutic value for the clinical treatment of atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases.Linked ArticlesThis article is part of a themed section on Chinese Innovation in Cardiovascular Drug Discovery. To view the other articles in this section visit http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bph.2015.172.issue-23
AM841, a covalent cannabinoid ligand, powerfully slows gastrointestinal motility in normal and stressed mice in a peripherally restricted manner
Authors: Keenan C M , Storr M A , Thakur G A , Wood J T , Wager‐Miller J , Straiker A , Eno M R , Nikas S P , Bashashati M , Hu H , Mackie K , Makriyannis A , Sharkey K A 
Published: January 2015

Background and PurposeCannabinoid (CB) ligands have been demonstrated to have utility as novel therapeutic agents for the treatment of pain, metabolic conditions and gastrointestinal (GI) disorders. However, many of these ligands are centrally active, which limits their usefulness. Here, we examine a unique novel covalent CB receptor ligand, AM841, to assess its potential for use in physiological and pathophysiological in vivo studies.Experimental ApproachThe covalent nature of AM841 was determined in vitro using electrophysiological and receptor internalization studies on isolated cultured hippocampal neurons. Mouse models were used for behavioural analysis of analgesia, hypothermia and hypolocomotion. The motility of the small and large intestine was assessed in vivo under normal conditions and after acute stress. The brain penetration of AM841 was also determined.Key ResultsAM841 behaved as an irreversible CB1 receptor agonist in vitro. AM841 potently reduced GI motility through an action on CB1 receptors in the small and large intestine under physiological conditions. AM841 was even more potent under conditions of acute stress and was shown to normalize accelerated GI motility under these conditions. This compound behaved as a peripherally restricted ligand, showing very little brain penetration and no characteristic centrally mediated CB1 receptor‐mediated effects (analgesia, hypothermia or hypolocomotion).Conclusions and ImplicationsAM841, a novel peripherally restricted covalent CB1 receptor ligand that was shown to be remarkably potent, represents a new class of potential therapeutic agents for the treatment of functional GI disorders.