bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Methylation-sensitive expression of a DNA demethylase gene serves as an epigenetic rheostat
Authors: Williams Ben P. , Pignatta Daniela , Henikoff Steven , Gehring Mary 
Published: March 2015

AbstractGenomes must balance active suppression of transposable elements (TEs) with the need to maintain gene expression. In Arabidopsis, euchromatic TEs are targeted by RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM). Conversely, active DNA demethylation prevents accumulation of methylation at genes proximal to these TEs. It is unknown how a cellular balance between methylation and demethylation activities is achieved. Here we show that both RdDM and DNA demethylation are highly active at a TE proximal to the major DNA demethylase geneROS1. Unexpectedly, and in contrast to most other genomic targets, expression ofROS1is promoted by DNA methylation and antagonized by DNA demethylation. We demonstrate that inducing methylation of theROS1proximal region is sufficient to restoreROS1expression in an RdDM mutant. Additionally, methylation-sensitive expression ofROS1is conserved in other species, suggesting it is adaptive. We propose that theROS1locus functions as an epigenetic rheostat, tuning the level of demethylase activity in response to methylation alterations, thus ensuring epigenomic stability.Author SummaryOrganisms must adapt to dynamic and variable internal and external environments. Maintaining homeostasis in core biological processes is crucial to minimizing the deleterious consequences of environmental fluctuations. Genomes are also dynamic and variable, and must be robust against stresses, including the invasion of genomic parasites, such as transposable elements (TEs). In this work we present the discovery of an epigenetic rheostat in plants that maintains homeostasis in levels of DNA methylation. DNA methylation typically silences transcription of TEs. Because there is positive feedback between existing andde novoDNA methylation, it is critical that methylation is not allowed to spread and potentially silence transcription of genes. To maintain homeostasis, methylation promotes the production of a demethylase enzyme that removes methylation from gene-proximal regions. The demethylation of genes is therefore always maintained in concert with the levels of methylation suppressing TEs. In addition, this DNA demethylating enzyme also represses its own production in a negative feedback loop. Together, these feedback mechanisms shed new light into how the conflict between gene expression and genome defense is maintained in homeostasis. The presence of this rheostat in multiple species suggests it is an evolutionary conserved adaptation.
LACCASE5 Is Required for Lignification of the Brachypodium distachyon Culm
Authors: Wang Yin , Bouchabke-Coussa Oumaya , Lebris Philippe , Antelme Sébastien , Soulhat Camille , Gineau Emilie , Dalmais Marion , Bendahmane Abdelafid , Morin Halima , Mouille Grégory , Legée Frédéric , Cézard Laurent , Lapierre Catherine , Sibout Richard 
Published: March 2015

Abstract
The oxidation of monolignols is a required step for lignin polymerization and deposition in cell walls. In dicots, both peroxidases and laccases are known to participate in this process. Here, we provide evidence that laccases are also involved in the lignification of Brachypodium distachyon, a model plant for temperate grasses. Transcript quantification data as well as in situ and immunolocalization experiments demonstrated that at least two laccases (LACCASE5 and LACCASE6) are present in lignifying tissues. A mutant with a misspliced LACCASE5 messenger RNA was identified in a targeting-induced local lesion in genome mutant collection. This mutant shows 10% decreased Klason lignin content and modification of the syringyl-to-guaiacyl units ratio. The amount of ferulic acid units ester linked to the mutant cell walls is increased by 40% when compared with control plants, while the amount of ferulic acid units ether linked to lignins is decreased. In addition, the mutant shows a higher saccharification efficiency. These results provide clear evidence that laccases are required for B. distachyon lignification and are promising targets to alleviate the recalcitrance of grass lignocelluloses.
Examining the influence of business environment on socio-economic performance of informal microenterprises
Authors: Khan Eijaz Ahmed , Quaddus Mohammed 
Published: March 2015

Purpose– This study realize that the relationships between business environment and firm performance in context of small- and medium-sized enterprises and large organizations is well understood and focused, but less research has been done on microenterprises, especially in informal sector. The purpose of this paper is to examine these relationships.Design/methodology/approach– A mixed method research design was used. In the field study, data were obtained from 14 participants via one-to-one personal interview. Content analysis was applied to extract, classify, and cross-examine of the data. In the quantitative approach, questionnaire was developed and data were collected from 438 informal microenterprises (IMs) owners. The data were analysed using the partial least square structural equation modelling.Findings– Results from this field study and survey recognized these relationships and vibrates well with the existing literature and establish the hypothesis.Practical implications– In order to create more favourable environment and ensure the performance, the policy makers, professional bodies could formulate decent requirements for IMs to have a code of business practices and socio-economic performance.Originality/value– This study provides a first step towards business environment and firm performance in context IMs and makes several contributions to the literature.
Post-Soviet informality: towards theory-building
Authors: Aliyev Huseyn 
Published: March 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to suggest that informal practices and institutions of post-Soviet countries differ from informality in other post-socialist regions and, therefore, proposes categorizing it as “post-Soviet informality” – a composite definition that extends beyond the concept of “informal economy” and encompasses, along with economic activities, social and political spheres.Design/methodology/approach– The arguments of the paper are based on a comprehensive analysis of secondary sources.Findings– This paper shows that, owing to the effects of antecedent regime’s legacies and the problems of post-communist transition, for the proper analysis of informality in post-Soviet countries it needs to be based on an own concept.Originality/value– This study, in contrast to the existing literature on informality in post-communist spaces, specifically focuses on the informal sphere of post-Soviet countries, suggesting that the informal institutions and practices thriving across the vast post-Soviet space not only differ from the informal spheres elsewhere in the world, but also from informality in other post-communist regions.
Expectations towards home care re-ablement in Danish municipalities
Authors: Fersch Barbara 
Published: March 2015

Purpose– Re-abling care of frail older people is highly on the agenda in several countries. The purpose of this paper is to have a closer look at the argumentation used for its establishment by local policy actors in the field and the kind of expectations towards the behaviour of frail older people it entails.Design/methodology/approach– The empirical material consists of qualitative interviews with 17 local policy actors in two Danish municipalities. The interviews have been analysed with the help of argumentative discourse analysis.Findings– The most important argument for re-abling care appears to be grounded in economic reasons. However, a second, moral argument was found revolving around the older peoples’ activity, which contributes to the establishment of moral expectations towards frail older people to be active.Research limitations/implications– As the goal of the study was to analyse understandings and values of key local actors, the implementation of re-ablement programmes and the users’ perspective were not studied.Originality/value– The paper contributes to the investigation of the shift from universal entitlement as a right to towards market rationalities in Danish elder care.
Family socio-cultural values affecting early marriage between Muslim and Santal communities in rural Bangladesh
Authors: Uddin Md. Emaj 
Published: March 2015

Purpose
– Family socio-cultural values and its practices have pervasive effects on early age at first marriage in every society. The purpose of this paper is to examine and compare how family socio-cultural values and its practices exert effect on early age at first marriage between Muslim and Santal couples in rural Bangladesh.

Design/methodology/approach
– First of all through snow-ball process and checking of marriage documents the author carefully identified 598 couples from Muslim and 560 from Santal who were married the first time between 1995 and 2005 years and whose age range was 12-48 years for husbands and 10-45 years for wives. Then, 585 pairs of couples (295 for Muslim and 290 for Santal) were randomly selected from the Talonda of Rajshahi district, Bangladesh. Data were collected, applying interview method with semi-structural questionnaire in family setting. Then the collected data were analyzed, using χ2 test and binary logistic regression (BLR) technique.

Findings
– The frequency distribution showed that most of the Santal couples compared to the Muslim ones were married before the minimum legal age in Bangladesh. The results of χ2 test of the frequency distribution were significant at p<0.01 and p<0.05 level. In addition, results of BLR analysis suggested that early age at first marriage was significantly (p<0.01 and p<0.05) associated with family socio-cultural values studied. It is argued that ethnicity, family pattern, residence pattern, illiteracy and ascriptive occupational status were the risk factors to persist early marriage among the Santal couples than the Muslim ones in rural Bangladesh.

Practical implications
– Although the findings are suggestive to understand differences in early marriage associated with family socio-cultural values between the ethnic couples, further cross-cultural study should be conducted on how socio-psychological factors affect early marriage between the ethnic groups. In spite of the limitations these findings may have implications in comparative social policy practice to prevent early marriage associated with changes in family socio-cultural values between the ethnic groups in Bangladesh.

Originality/value
– The findings in the paper are original in linking between family socio-cultural theory, its related policy and practice to prevent early marriage between the ethnic couples in Bangladesh.
Re-thinking queue culture: the commodification of thick time
Authors: Wexler Mark N. 
Published: March 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to highlight both the contribution and the present need to reconfigure the literature on “queue culture” as a precursor of the sociology of waiting.Design/methodology/approach– The study employs a legal-structural lens in comparing the initial conceptual treatment of the archetypal “waiting line” with the “line” modifying sociology of waiting that results in waiting rooms, number and telephone queues and in the experience of online waiting.Findings– The initial conception of the culture of the queue understates the importance of three factors: first, the role of third parties in the design, management and inculcation of rules binding those experiencing thick time; second the degree to which communication technology and its attachment to the “mobilities” paradigm has thinned the experience of thick time and lastly the degree to which the increasing commodification of the wait has resulted in the creation of waiting time as a form of pay as you go flexitime.Social implications– The social construction of waiting and the experience of thick time are shown to be increasingly part of the privatized market experience where queue management innovations not only are commercialized but have strong implications for the egalitarian social assumptions imbedded in the initial queue culture based sociology of waiting. Policy implications support the present pay for use philosophy increasingly applied in the transition from public to private management of space.Originality/value– The self-policing “fairness” of the waiting line is now open to scrutiny given the proliferation of the newly shaped distributional logics imbedded in the management, design and use of waiting spaces.
Halal supply chain critical success factors: a literature review
Authors: Ab Talib Mohamed Syazwan , Abdul Hamid Abu Bakar , Zulfakar Mohd Hafiz 
Published: March 2015

Purpose
– The aim of this study is to discover the critical success factors (CSFs) for the Halal supply chain management because this area is gaining recognition. Plus, the aim is to use the CSFs for future research.

Design/methodology/approach
– The study is based on the application of CSFs on the Halal supply chain. A comprehensive literature review is undertaken to discover the CSFs of conventional supply chain and to apply it to the Halal supply chain.

Findings
– Government support, transportation planning, information technology, human resource management, collaborative relationship, Halal certification and Halal traceability are the CSFs for the Halal supply chain.

Research limitations/implications
– This study only discusses the CSFs related to the Halal supply chain and ignoring other forms of Halal businesses. This study only concerns on English literatures and omit other languages. The study lacks empirical evidence and future research should be done to test the CSFs relevancy.

Practical implications
– This study addresses stakeholders of the Halal supply chain CSFs, which have not been fully understand and appreciated.

Originality/value
– CSFs concept has never been attempted on the Halal supply chain. Therefore, this study appraises the concept of CSFs and adds value to the knowledge on the Halal supply chain.
Learning from socially driven service innovation in emerging economies
Authors: Reynoso Javier , Kandampully Jay , Fan Xiucheng , Paulose Hanna 
Published: March 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into indigenous, solution-based business models and their relevance for inclusive service innovation within specific social contexts in emerging economies, with particular emphasis on the role of culture and technology.Design/methodology/approach– A proposed framework illustrates four factors that nurture socially driven service innovation in emerging economies: solution, inclusion, culture, and technology. Extant literature from studies in India, Latin America, and China illustrates distinct indigenous innovations and service relationships that exist at the base of the pyramid (BoP), which provides a foundation for a better understanding of socially inclusive service innovations.Findings– A conceptual model of inclusive service innovation reflects an integrated, virtuous cycle, composed of service relationships that stem from the BoP at various levels of analysis across different income segments. These findings suggest notable research directions.Practical implications– This study reinforces the importance of a solution orientation as a competitive business model to gain customer engagement.Social implications– Researchers and practitioners in emerging and advanced economies can use the approach suggested by this paper in their efforts to build sustainable business cultures and improve the well-being of society.Originality/value– Previous research has not addressed the social or communal roles of service innovation; this study proposes an innovative switch from a traditional strategy of selling services toward a proactive approach that involves low-income customers as active resources to co-create social and business value.
Resource configurations for services success in manufacturing companies
Authors: Raddats Chris , Burton Jamie , Ashman Rachel 
Published: March 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate which resources and capabilities are most important to enable large manufacturers undergoing servitization to develop and deliver successful services.

Design/methodology/approach
– A survey of 155 UK-based manufacturers provided the basis for the study. Data analysis was undertaken using confirmatory factor analysis and multiple regression.

Findings
– In total, five constructs (“resource configurations”) which enable the development and delivery of successful services and a construct to measure services performance (“Success of Services”) were developed from the literature. A measurement model based on these constructs was empirically tested and verified. Two resource configurations; “Leaders and Services Personnel” and “Services Methods and Tools” were found to make a unique and statistically significant contribution to “Success of Services.”

Research limitations/implications
– The study highlights the importance of corporates leaders and service employees in developing and delivering success. Service-specific methods and tools are important for developing compelling customer offerings. The study demonstrates the utility of a resource-based perspective in terms of understanding the factors that enable successful services, but also exposes the limitations of using such broad measures, with common lower order resources underpinning multiple resource configurations. The study was conducted from the manufacturer’s perspective, and future studies could also include the customer’s perspective.

Practical implications
– The research identifies important factors in developing a greater service orientation in manufacturing companies.

Originality/value
– This is one of the first studies to develop and test a model of services success, generalizable to the population of large manufacturers.
Patient value co-creation in online health communities
Authors: Zhao Jing , Wang Tao , Fan Xiucheng 
Published: March 2015

Purpose– Patient value co-creation represents a key research priority and an essential determinant of health care service outcomes. Yet few studies empirically examine the factors that motivate patients to participate actively in value co-creation. The purpose of this paper is to seek to identify the motivators of such activities in online health communities (OHC) and examine their specific and unique effects.Design/methodology/approach– A netnographic study helps identify the motivators that drive patients’ value co-creation activities in OHCs. The combination of these results with social identity theories suggest the hypotheses; mediation analyses test the hypothesized model with data collected from eight OHCs that address both life-threatening and non-life-threatening illnesses.Findings– The netnographic results show that social identity drives patients’ value co-creation activities. Interactions among OHC members and the cognitive resources of the OHC both contribute to the development of its social identity. Furthermore, benevolence trust, shared vision, and shared language determine how likely an OHC member is to identify with a particular OHC, which further influences his or her value co-creation activities in that OHC.Originality/value– Although value co-creation is critical to the health care sector, few studies examine antecedents of patient value co-creation empirically. This study represents an initial attempt to do so by combining innovative netnographic analyses with mediation analyses.
Proactive and reactive corporate social responsibility: antecedent and consequence
Authors: Chang Ching-Hsun 
Published: March 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to develop an original framework to explore corporate social responsibility (CSR) plays a mediation role between green organizational culture and green product innovation performance.Design/methodology/approach– This study divides CSR into proactive CSR and reactive CSR. This research employs an empirical study by means of the questionnaire survey method to verify the hypotheses and to explore its managerial implications in Taiwanese manufacturing companies. Structural equation modeling is applied to verify the research framework.Findings– The empirical results verify that green organizational culture positively affects proactive CSR and green product innovation performance. This study shows that proactive CSR mediates the positive relationship between green organizational culture and green product innovation performance, but reactive CSR does not. Green organizational culture is a driving force for proactive CSR and green product innovation performance. Organizational members in Taiwanese companies are exposed to green organizational culture which influences CSR activities. Moreover, this study verifies that proactive CSR of large companies are significantly higher than those of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).Research limitations/implications– There are three limitations of this study. First, this study verifies the hypotheses by means of questionnaire survey which only includes cross-sectional data. Second, this study utilize self-reported data may suffer the problems of common method variance. Third, this study applies a “five-point Likert scale” ranging from 1 to 5 to measure the constructs. Future research can apply a “seven-point Likert scale” to measure the constructs and compare with this study to test the significance of the variability of the data. There are two implications emerging from the study. First, proactive CSR has a positive effect on green product innovation performance, but reactive CSR does not. Second, green organizational culture is a driving force for proactive CSR and green product innovation performance.Originality/value– This study summarizes the literature of CSR into a new managerial framework and highlights the importance of proactive CSR. Therefore, green organizational culture cannot only affect green product innovation performance directly, but also influence it indirectly via proactive CSR in the Taiwanese manufacturing industry. Taiwanese manufacturing companies can increase their green organizational culture and proactive CSR to enhance their green product innovation performance. This study also explores that proactive CSR of large companies are significantly higher than those of SME.