bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Neuropsychological Function, Anxiety, Depression and Pain Impact in Fibromyalgia Patients
Authors: Cuevas-Toro Ana Mª , López-Torrecillas Francisca , Díaz-Batanero Mª Carmen , Pérez-Marfil Mª Nieves 
Published: November 2014

AbstractCognitive deficits have a significant impact on the daily performance of fibromyalgia patients. This paper analyzes executive functioning and decision-making performance, and the relationships between these functions and pain, anxiety, depression and medication in fibromyalgia patients. A group of fibromyalgia patients (FG) (n = 85) was compared with a healthy control group (CG) (n = 85) in their performance in the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). In the WCST, results showed a percentage of non-perseverative errors significantly higher in the CG than in the FG (p = .026), the other variables (percentage of perseverative errors, number of categories and failures to maintain set) showed no significant differences. In relation to decision-making (IGT), once the rules had been learnt, the FG made fewer advantageous choices than the CG, but these differences were not statistically significant (p = .325). In the FG, pain severity (p = .010) and impact on daily activities (p = .016) interfered with decision-making, unlike anxiety, depression or medication, which did no relate to it. In executive function, pain and impact on daily activities were associated with the percentage of perseverative errors (p = .051) and the number of categories (p = .031), whereas pain severity was related to failures to maintain set (p = .039), indicative of increased distractibility and poor attentional ability. In conclusion, FG showed normal performance in executive functioning and decision-making. Moreover, pain was associated with neuropsychological functioning whereas anxiety, depression and medication were not.
The immune synapse clears and excludes molecules above a size threshold
Authors: Cartwright Adam N. R. , Griggs Jeremy , Davis Daniel M. 
Published: November 2014

AbstractNatural killer cells assess target cell health via interactions at the immune synapse (IS) that facilitates signal integration and directed secretion. Here we test whether the IS also functions as a gasket. Quantitative fluorescence microscopy of nanometer-scale dextrans within synapses formed by various effector-target cell conjugates reveal that molecules are excluded in a size-dependent manner at activating synapses. Dextran sized ≤4 nm move in and out of the IS, but access is significantly reduced (by >50%) for dextran sized 10–13 nm, and dextran ≥32 nm is almost entirely excluded. Depolymerization of F-actin abrogated exclusion. Unexpectedly, larger-sized dextrans are cleared as the IS assembles in a zipper-like manner. Monoclonal antibodies are also excluded from the IS but smaller single-domain antibodies are able to penetrate. Therefore, the IS can clear and exclude molecules above a size threshold, and drugs designed to target synaptic cytokines or cytotoxic proteins must fit these dimensions.
Formation of quantum spin Hall state on Si surface and energy gap scaling with strength of spin orbit coupling
Authors: Zhou Miao , Ming Wenmei , Liu Zheng , Wang Zhengfei , Yao Yugui , Liu Feng 
Published: November 2014

AbstractFor potential applications in spintronics and quantum computing, it is desirable to place a quantum spin Hall insulator [i.e., a 2D topological insulator (TI)] on a substrate while maintaining a large energy gap. Here, we demonstrate a unique approach to create the large-gap 2D TI state on a semiconductor surface, based on first-principles calculations and effective Hamiltonian analysis. We show that when heavy elements with strong spin orbit coupling (SOC) such as Bi and Pb atoms are deposited on a patterned H-Si(111) surface into a hexagonal lattice, they exhibit a 2D TI state with a large energy gap of ≥0.5 eV. The TI state arises from an intriguing substrate orbital filtering effect that selects a suitable orbital composition around the Fermi level, so that the system can be matched onto a four-band effective model Hamiltonian. Furthermore, it is found that within this model, the SOC gap does not increase monotonically with the increasing strength of SOC. These interesting results may shed new light in future design and fabrication of large-gap topological quantum states.
Microfluidics for Medical Applications
Authors:   Royal Society of Chemistry
Published: November 2014

Lab-on-a-chip devices for point of care diagnostics have been present in clinics for several years now. Alongside their continual development, research is underway to bring the organs and tissue on-a-chip to the patient, amongst other medical applications of microfluidics.
This book provides the reader with a comprehensive review of the latest developments in the application of microfluidics to medicine and is divided into three main sections. The first part of the book discusses the state-of-the-art in organs and tissue on a chip; the second provides a thorough background to microfluidics for medicine, and the third (and largest) section provides numerous examples of point-of-care diagnostics.
Written with students and practitioners in mind, and with contributions from the leaders in the field across the globe, this book provides a complete digest of the state-of-the-art in microfluidics medical devices and will provide a handy resource for any laboratory or clinic involved in the development or application of such devices.
Opioid Abuse and Dependence during Pregnancy
Authors: Maeda Ayumi , Bateman Brian T. , Clancy Caitlin R. , Creanga Andreea A. , Leffert Lisa R. 
Published: November 2014

Abstract

Background:
The authors investigated nationwide trends in opioid abuse or dependence during pregnancy and assessed the impact on maternal and obstetrical outcomes in the United States.

Methods:
Hospitalizations for delivery were extracted from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample from 1998 to 2011. Temporal trends were assessed and logistic regression was used to examine the associations between maternal opioid abuse or dependence and obstetrical outcomes adjusting for relevant confounders.

Results:
The prevalence of opioid abuse or dependence during pregnancy increased from 0.17% (1998) to 0.39% (2011) for an increase of 127%. Deliveries associated with maternal opioid abuse or dependence compared with those without opioid abuse or dependence were associated with an increased odds of maternal death during hospitalization (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 4.6; 95% CI, 1.8 to 12.1, crude incidence 0.03 vs. 0.006%), cardiac arrest (aOR, 3.6; 95% CI, 1.4 to 9.1; 0.04 vs. 0.01%), intrauterine growth restriction (aOR, 2.7; 95% CI, 2.4 to 2.9; 6.8 vs. 2.1%), placental abruption (aOR, 2.4; 95% CI, 2.1 to 2.6; 3.8 vs. 1.1%), length of stay more than 7 days (aOR, 2.2; 95% CI, 2.0 to 2.5; 3.0 vs. 1.2%), preterm labor (aOR, 2.1; 95% CI, 2.0 to 2.3; 17.3 vs. 7.4%), oligohydramnios (aOR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.6 to 1.9; 4.5 vs. 2.8%), transfusion (aOR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.5 to 1.9; 2.0 vs. 1.0%), stillbirth (aOR, 1.5; 95% CI, 1.3 to 1.8; 1.2 vs. 0.6%), premature rupture of membranes (aOR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.3 to 1.6; 5.7 vs. 3.8%), and cesarean delivery (aOR, 1.2; 95% CI, 1.1 to 1.3; 36.3 vs. 33.1%).

Conclusions:
Opioid abuse or dependence during pregnancy is associated with considerable obstetrical morbidity and mortality, and its prevalence is dramatically increasing in the United States. Identifying preventive strategies and therapeutic interventions in pregnant women who abuse drugs are important priorities for clinicians and scientists.
REDUCED DORMANCY5Encodes a Protein Phosphatase 2C That Is Required for Seed Dormancy inArabidopsis
Authors: Xiang Yong , Nakabayashi Kazumi , Ding Jia , He Fei , Bentsink Leónie , Soppe Wim J.J. 
Published: November 2014

AbstractSeed dormancy determines germination timing and contributes to crop production and the adaptation of natural populations to their environment. Our knowledge about its regulation is limited. In a mutagenesis screen of a highly dormant Arabidopsis thaliana line, the reduced dormancy5 (rdo5) mutant was isolated based on its strongly reduced seed dormancy. Cloning of RDO5 showed that it encodes a PP2C phosphatase. Several PP2C phosphatases belonging to clade A are involved in abscisic acid signaling and control seed dormancy. However, RDO5 does not cluster with clade A phosphatases, and abscisic acid levels and sensitivity are unaltered in the rdo5 mutant. RDO5 transcript could only be detected in seeds and was most abundant in dry seeds. RDO5 was found in cells throughout the embryo and is located in the nucleus. A transcriptome analysis revealed that several genes belonging to the conserved PUF family of RNA binding proteins, in particular Arabidopsis PUMILIO9 (APUM9) and APUM11, showed strongly enhanced transcript levels in rdo5 during seed imbibition. Further transgenic analyses indicated that APUM9 reduces seed dormancy. Interestingly, reduction of APUM transcripts by RNA interference complemented the reduced dormancy phenotype of rdo5, indicating that RDO5 functions by suppressing APUM transcript levels.
Contorted leadership in Chinese hierarchically oriented context
Authors: Zhang Lin , Zhang Xiaojun 
Published: November 2014

Purpose
– The aim of this research is to explore the behavioral model of Chinese organizational leaders acquiring resources for the development of their organizations under the influence of hierarchically oriented social governance.

Design/methodology/approach
– The paper compares the differences between Western and Chinese contexts and conducts a grounded multi-case study to explore leadership behavioral model in the Chinese context.

Findings
– First, the Chinese social governance structure is hierarchically oriented, whereas the Western social governance structure is market oriented. Second, this unique inconformity found in the Chinese organizational leaders as contorted leadership, which refers to the inconsistency between leaders’ cognition and their behavior when acquiring resources for the development of their organizations, is defined. Third, the conflict between leaders’ cognition and behaviors is caused by the social governance mechanism within which leaders are embedded.

Research limitations/implications
– The authors have just made a first step to understand contorted leadership in the Chinese context, further researches should pay more attention to exploring the origins, functions and impacts of leaders’ contorted behaviors.

Originality/value
– First, leadership is linked with social governance by emphasizing on the core role of social governance in allocating the resources which organizational leaders scramble for. Second, a new kind of leadership –contorted leadership – in the Chinese context that emphasizes on the contradiction between leaders’ cognition and behavior, which deepens the understanding of leadership contextualization, is identified.
Do psychological contract and organizational citizenship behavior affect organizational performance in non-profit organizations?
Authors: Tsui-Hsu Tsai Tracy , Jing Lin Arthur 
Published: November 2014

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to survey volunteers and full-time employees in international non-profit organizations (NPOs) and explore the relationships among psychological contract (PC), organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and organizational performance (OP).Design/methodology/approach– Using 573 usable responses, a linear structural equation model (SEM) was developed to examine the relationships.Findings– The results demonstrate significant positive relationships between PC and OCB, OCB and OP and PC and OP. They also show the mediating effect of OCB on the relationship between PC and OP.Research limitations/implications– Beside mediation effect, OCB and other variables might exert significant moderation effect on the relationship between PC and OP. Companies could conduct longitudinal studies to examine the changes of PC and OCB impacts on OP.Practical implications– Companies pursuing Chinese market should cooperate with NPOs in multiple ways including marketing for philanthropic purposes, supporting volunteer services and sponsoring the NPO. This way the company’s image will improve and its business will expand among its Chinese clientele.Originality/value– Budget concerns often force NPOs to downsize full-time staff, making considerable portion of their operations rely on a large number of volunteers. This study offers practical guidelines for NPOs to effectively entice and support both volunteers and employees for achieving its organizational goals.
Corporate political performance: approaches and theories
Authors: Wei Wu , Li Yanping , Zhang Pengcheng 
Published: November 2014

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework of corporate political performance (CPP) in corporate political activity. In fact, CPP refers to political benefits obtained by firms when they formulate and implement political strategies to influence the public policy process though the investment of political resources. This paper focuses on answering what is perhaps the most fundamental question to strategy researchers: “How do firms engage in political strategies to improve their performance?”Design/methodology/approach– In building a theoretical framework, this paper, first, provides a historical analysis of political efficiency and effectiveness. Then, this paper attempts to illustrate conceptually our understanding of political performance process by a generalized and contingent approach. Finally, this paper discusses the framework, its theoretical contribution and practical implications for Chinese management, and comments on limitations for future research.Findings– The paper presents a conceptual CPP model that integrates political efficiency and effectiveness approach. In the conceptual framework, three phases of CPP include sources of political advantage, political competitive advantage and political performance outcome, and three dimensions are identified as political efficiency, effectiveness and adaptiveness. CPP approach is not a “generalized” nature of political performance measurement, as the difference among firms and industries in this area may be significant, which reflects the effect of context, reaction and outcome factors.Research limitations/implications– While it provides a strong theoretical foundation, this paper still has almost little empirical evidence concerning CPP process. However, how to measure CPP has increasingly begun to focus on an important research domain in corporate political strategy literature. This paper believes that this model has a need for future research to test its feasibility by using the measurement scales in Chinese context.Originality/value– This paper is original in its attempt to measure CPP to help the business practice in corporate of political activity, and broaden corporate political strategy research in mainstream strategic management.
Governance for China: a multi-method research in corruption studies
Authors: Foo Check-Teck , Wu Weiwei , Chin Tachia 
Published: November 2014

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to utilize a multi-method design for research on corruption in China. Corruption in any society is inimical to good governance. Singapore, despite her size, is argued to be a plausible model for China.Design/methodology/approach– Taking a multi-method approach, the phenomena of corruption is investigated from: etymological analyses for corruption (European roots) and its Chinese equivalent, 贪污 (pinyin:tan wu) case studies taken from three periods: current, Qing Dynasty and to founding of China (zhong guo, Qin Dynasty) to ground our policy recommendation of China be modeling after Singapore on the basis of our analysis of statistical (2013 and longitudinal) data. In the process, the authors embark on inter-country comparisons (mainly Confucian China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan).Findings– Here are the key insights: scholars are unaware the English word corruption is narrower in scope than the Chinese equivalenttan wu贪污. As far back as 3,000 years, the Chinese had attributedwu, 污 as filthy, polluting, dirty to psychological concept of greedtan, 贪. In English, corruption does not denote greedper se. Falsification of facts as a political ploy dates back to Qin dynasty. Destabilizing corrupt cases occurred in China today as in Qing Dynasty. Singapore rather Hong Kong is a better model for China in reforming society.Practical implications– This paper illustrates a distinctively, in-depth approach to research on Chinese management. It shows why it is important to clarify key concepts: corruption in the West andtan wu贪污in the East. Historical cases are utilized to show the presence of a continuing Chinese mind set. The authors argued for China to embark on a city-by-city strategy (modeling after Singapore) toward becoming a corruption-free society. Now, as 3,000 years ago, the Chinese conceptualization of corruption embeds the psychology of greed.Social implications– China is at a crossroad of her economic development. There is a possible risk of China being destabilized through the corruption of the top rung of leadership. Chinese authorities must with urgency, rein in corruption. An approach is proposed in this paper.Originality/value– In terms of style, approach and method of research, this paper is highly original. The integrative research here provides a rationale and basis for the Chinese leaders to implement a policy for a less corrupt society.
Consumer expertise matters in price negotiation
Authors: M. Barrutia Jose , Paz Espinosa María 
Published: November 2014

Purpose
– The main purpose of this paper is to study the effect of consumer expertise on mortgage loan prices. We argue that consumer expertise should affect price due to two reasons: (1) loan mortgage prices in non-price-regulated settings are usually the result of a bank-customer negotiation process; and (2) a mortgage loan is a complex product.

Design/methodology/approach
– Data on mortgage loan prices were used for a sample of 1,055 households for 2005 (Bank of Spain Survey of Household Finances, EFF-2005).

Findings
– The regression results indicate that consumer expertise-related metrics are highly significant as predictors of mortgage loan prices. Findings also indicate that cost-related variables and a measure of risk with low discrimination power (i.e. having a permanent employment contract, which accounts for 70 per cent of contracts in Spain) affect price. Surprisingly, more sophisticated measures of credit risk do not have such a significant impact on mortgage prices.

Research limitations/implications
– Empirical results refer to the credit conditions prior to the financial crisis and could shed some light on the factors that led to it.

Practical implications
– Findings seem to indicate that, in the period under study, bank managers prioritized capturing new business in the short-term against normative prescriptions, which suggest that price should be credit-risk adjusted (financial literature) and long-term consumer potential adjusted (marketing literature). The post-2008 difficult economic situation of Spanish banks (linked to an excessive portfolio of mortgage loans granted at very low prices) shows that these strategies were wrong.

Originality/value
– An uncommon perspective was adopted. The importance of consumer expertise-related variables on price has been underemphasized by prior research. The effect of consumer expertise is assessed by using a large and comprehensive database.
International market selection for small firms: a fuzzy-based decision process
Authors: Marchi Gianluca , Vignola Marina , Facchinetti Gisella , Mastroleo Giovanni 
Published: November 2014

Purpose
– This study aims to build and test an International Market Selection (IMS) decision process method that is able to capture, within a small firm’s risk-averse setting, the entrepreneur's experience, reduce cognitive biases, and preserve the flexibility of the decision, by combining the advantages of systematic and behavioural-based international market selection approaches.

Design/methodology/approach
– The unit of analysis is the IMS decision process of a small firm venturing abroad. We adopt a ranking approach based on three-step screening. We assess the markets through a multi-criteria approach with a wider set of variables aggregated within a tree-shaped model. To obtain the ranking, we use a Fuzzy Expert System (FES) as an evaluative tool.

Findings
– The results show that the proposed decision method is consistent with the entrepreneur’s strategic orientation and experience, while preserving the flexibility requested for decision-making in small firms. Unlike traditional behavioural IMS approaches, the method demonstrates an ability to reduce the cognitive biases associated with the use of a limited set of variables and unreliable evaluation models.

Research limitations/implications
– The single-case-study approach limits generalization of the findings.

Practical implications
– The proposed methodology helps the decision-maker to improve the quality of the IMS decision by reducing the effect of cognitive biases that usually affect traditional behavioural models.

Originality/value
– For the first time, a decision-process methodology based on an FES is applied to a small firm’s IMS problem.
Evaluation of forecasting models for air cargo
Authors: Klindokmai Sirikhorn , Neech Peter , Wu Yue , Ojiako Udechukwu , Chipulu Max , Marshall Alasdair 
Published: November 2014

Purpose
– Virgin Atlantic Cargo is one of the largest air freight operators in the world. As part of a wider strategic development initiative, the company has identified forecasting accuracy as of strategic importance to its operational efficiency. This is because accurate forecast enables the company to have the right resources available at the right place and time. The purpose of this paper is to undertake an evaluation of current month-to-date forecasting utilized by Virgin Atlantic Cargo. The study employed demand patterns drawn from historical data on chargeable weight over a seven-year-period covering six of the company's routes.

Design/methodology/approach
– A case study is carried out, where a comparison between forecasting models is undertaken using error accuracy measures. Data in the form of historical chargeable weight over a seven-year-period covering six of the company's most profitable routes are employed in the study. For propriety and privacy reasons, data provided by the company have been sanitized.

Findings
– Preliminary analysis of the time series shows that the air cargo chargeable weight could be difficult to forecast due to demand fluctuations which appear extremely sensitive to external market and economic factors.

Originality/value
– The study contributes to existing literature on air cargo forecasting and is therefore of interest to scholars examining the problems of overbooking. Overbooking which is employed by air cargo operators to hedge against “no-show” bookings. However, the inability of air cargo operators to accurately predict cargo capacity unlikely to be used implies that operators are unable to establish with an aspect of certainty their revenue streams. The research methodology adopted is also predominantly discursive in that it employs a synthesis of existing forecasting literature and real-life data for accuracy analysis.