bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Diverging biological roles among human monocyte subsets in the context of tuberculosis infection
Authors: Balboa Luciana , Barrios-Payan Jorge , González-Domínguez Erika , Lastrucci Claire , Lugo-Villarino Geanncarlo , Mata-Espinoza Dulce , Schierloh Pablo , Kviatcovsky Denise , Neyrolles Olivier , Maridonneau-Parini Isabelle , Sánchez-Torres Carmen , Sasiain María del Carmen , Hernández-Pando Rogelio 
Published: April 2015

Circulating monocytes (Mo) play an essential role in the host immune response to chronic infections. We previously demonstrated that CD16pos Mo were expanded in TB (tuberculosis) patients, correlated with disease severity and were refractory to dendritic cell differentiation. In the present study, we investigated whether human Mo subsets (CD16neg and CD16pos) differed in their ability to influence the early inflammatory response against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We first evaluated the capacity of the Mo subsets to migrate and engage a microbicidal response in vitro. Accordingly, CD16neg Mo were more prone to migrate in response to different mycobacteria-derived gradients, were more resistant to M. tuberculosis intracellular growth and produced higher reactive oxygen species than their CD16pos counterpart. To assess further the functional dichotomy among the human Mo subsets, we carried out an in vivo analysis by adapting a hybrid mouse model (SCID/Beige, where SCID is severe combined immunodeficient) to transfer each Mo subset, track their migratory fate during M. tuberculosis infection, and determine their impact on the host immune response. In M. tuberculosis-infected mice, the adoptively transferred CD16neg Mo displayed a higher lung migration index, induced a stronger pulmonary infiltration of murine leucocytes expressing pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines, and significantly decreased the bacterial burden, in comparison with CD16pos Mo. Collectively, our results indicate that human Mo subsets display divergent biological roles in the context of M. tuberculosis infection, a scenario in which CD16neg Mo may contribute to the anti-mycobacterial immune response, whereas CD16pos Mo might promote microbial resilience, shedding light on a key aspect of the physiopathology of TB disease.
Congestion management through rotor stress controlled optimal transmission switching
Authors: Nasrolahpour Ehsan , Ghasemi Hassan 
Published: April 2015

Security constrained optimal transmission switching (SC‐OTS) can be an essential part of future smart grids with flexible topologies. Transmission switching, however, can have adverse impact on generators because of creating excessive torque on their rotor shafts. In this study, SC‐OTS as an effective tool is applied to relieve congestion while considering AC constraints and generator rotor shaft impact caused by switching. As opposed to previously used simplified models based on standing phase angle, this study utilises dynamic response of generators to accurately calculate the actual stresses on rotors because of switching. In addition, network N‐1 security criterion is taken into account. In the proposed model, OTS actions are obtained through a bi‐level process. In the upper level, OTS set is determined and the applicability of each action is checked in the lower level. The proposed methodology leads to a mixed integer non‐linear programming problem, which is formulated and solved based on Benders decomposition. Test results for the IEEE 57 and 118‐bus systems illustrate the effectiveness of the method in removing congestion while ensuring that destructive switching manoeuvres are avoided.
Effects of Zinc Supplementation on Markers of Insulin Resistance and
Lipid Profiles in Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: a Randomized,
Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Trial
Authors: Foroozanfard F. , Jamilian M. , Jafari Z. , Khassaf A. , Hosseini A. , Khorammian H. , Asemi Z. 
Published: April 2015

Abstract
Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of zinc
supplementation on glucose homeostasis parameters and lipid concentrations in
PCOS women. We are aware of no study evaluating the effects of zinc
supplementation on metabolic profiles of patients with polycystic ovary syndrome
(PCOS).
Methods: This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was
conducted among 52 women diagnosed with PCOS and aged 18–40 years old.
Participants were randomly divided into 2 groups to receive 220 mg zinc sulfate
(containing 50 mg zinc) supplements (n=26) or placebo (n=26) per day for 8
weeks. Fasting blood samples were taken at baseline and after 8 weeks’
intervention to quantify glucose, insulin and lipid concentrations.
Results: After 8 weeks of intervention, subjects who received zinc
supplements had significantly increased serum zinc levels (+15.6±21.8 vs.
−4.1±16.7 mg/dL, P=0.001) compared with placebo. In addition, zinc-supplemented
patients had reduced fasting plasma glucose (FPG) (−4.3±9.6 vs. +0.5±6.0 mg/dL,
P=0.03), serum insulin levels (−3.0±2.9 vs. +1.5±8.4 µIU/mL, P=0.01),
homeostasis model of assessment-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) (−0.8±0.8 vs.
+0.3±1.9, P=0.006), homeostatic model assessment-Beta cell function (HOMA-B)
(−10.6±9.5 vs. +4.9±32.1, P=0.02) and increased quantitative insulin sensitivity
check index (QUICKI) (+0.02±0.02 vs. −0.004±0.05, P=0.03) compared with placebo.
Additionally, a significant reduction in serum triglycerides (−15.6±40.3 vs.
+14.5±25.3 mg/dL, P=0.002) and VLDL-cholesterol concentrations (−3.2±8.1 vs.
+2.9±5.1 mg/dL, P=0.002) was observed following the administration of zinc
supplements compared with placebo.
Conclusion: Taken together, 220 mg zinc sulfate supplementation per day
for 8 weeks among PCOS women had beneficial effects on metabolic profiles.
Rethinking conservation: managing cultural heritage as an inhabited cultural landscape
Authors: Vakhitova Tatiana Vadimovna 
Published: April 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to suggest an approach to cultural heritage management as an inhabited cultural landscape in a context of urban planning.

Design/methodology/approach
– The paper provides a review of academic literature on the topic of cultural heritage conservation.

Findings
– This paper supports an approach to management of cultural heritage as a cultural landscape, defining it as a multivalent social phenomenon with tangible and intangible dimensions, spatial, and temporal scales. The cultural landscape approach continues the discourse on heritage values and emphasises the importance of recognition of social value and hence a wider stakeholder participation in the process of heritage management. This approach allows enhancing both intangible and tangible dimensions of cultural heritage and, therefore, encourages a more inclusive consideration of diverse cultural heritage values (encompassing social and environmental categories, e.g. well-being, health).

Originality/value
– The proposed cultural landscape approach to heritage management, as a culturally significant, inhabited, and changing landscape, enables a more comprehensive view on the interrelations of cultural heritage with other social and environmental categories and enhances the understanding of different values of cultural heritage. This approach could be particularly useful for strategic development at city planning level and in large construction or infrastructural projects.
Is there an expectation gap? Consumers’ expectations towards organic
Authors: von Meyer-Höfer Marie , Nitzko Sina , Spiller Achim 
Published: April 2015

Purpose
– While the European organic regulation exists since more than 20 years consumers still do not seem to know what to expect from European Union (EU) labelled organic food. The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer expectations towards organic food in mature and emerging EU organic food markets.

Design/methodology/approach
– Online consumer survey data (n=1,180; 2011) from Germany, the UK, Spain, and the Czech Republic are used to analyse the question: “Which criteria would you expect of an organic food product labelled with the EU-organic label?”. In total, 23 items including organic production criteria according to EC 834/07 and unregulated food quality criteria are tested. Mean value analysis and exploratory factor analysis are performed.

Findings
– Consumers expect organic food to be free from chemical pesticides and mineral fertilisers. In total, two factors affect consumers’ expectations: naturalness of organic food products; additional sustainability aspects like, e.g. resource saving. However, several differences between the analysed countries exist. Although there does not seem to be a big gap between what consumers expect from organic food and what EU organic labelled products fulfil, some attributes might not mean the same to each consumer which could be a source of consumer disappointment.

Practical implications
– Consequently policy makers as well as market actors should take this risk seriously and use terms like “naturalness” only with great caution when promoting organic food.

Originality/value
– Further cross-country studies focusing on consumer expectations towards organic food are still needed, because until today only few studies deal with consumer and marketing issues in EU countries with different organic market development.
Consumers’ WTP for certified traceable tea in China
Authors: Liu Xiaolin , Xu Lingling , Zhu Dian , Wu Linhai 
Published: April 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer attitudes toward and willingness to pay (WTP) for traceability of tea in China.

Design/methodology/approach
– The authors used the payment card method to elicit WTP for certified traceable tea and logistic regression model to analyze the factors that affected consumers’ WTP.

Findings
– The results revealed that most consumers in China were concerned over tea safety; however, their WTP for certified traceable tea was limited. Only income and the degree of concern over tea safety affected the consumer’s WTP for certified traceable tea greatly. When it came to consumers’ WTP a positive price premium, income level, education, and attitude toward traceability of tea significantly influenced the actual premium consumers were willing to pay.

Practical implications
– The Chinese government and tea producers should pay attention when implementing tea traceability system. First, raising the consumers’ income contributes to the premiums that consumers are willing to pay for certified traceable tea. Second, social groups, consumer organizations and tea producers should popularize knowledge of tea traceability. Third, given the low price premiums that consumers are willing to pay, the establishment of viable traceability of tea in China requires the producers and the government to bear some of the cost associated with the implementation of this system.

Originality/value
– In past studies on WTP for certified traceable food, the study is focussed on meat in developed countries, and the research has expanded range of study, by conducting a survey in China to determine consumers’ WTP for certified traceable tea, and by empirically examining the main factors that influence the willingness of consumers to pay a price premium for certified traceable tea, as well as the premium that these consumers are willing to pay.
Control mechanisms and goal orientations: evidence from frontline service employees
Authors: Rodrigues Luiza Cristina Alencar , Coelho Filipe J. , Sousa Carlos M. P. 
Published: April 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of organizational controls, both formal and informal, over the goal orientations of frontline employees. The goal orientations of employees, namely, in frontline settings, have been associated with a number of positive outcomes for organizations. Not surprisingly, past research has identified several personal characteristics with an influence on goal orientations. However, the contextual variables that influence employees’ goal orientations remain unspecified.Design/methodology/approach– The authors distributed approximately 1,350 questionnaires through the frontline employees of a Brazilian bank and obtained 296 usable responses. The questionnaire relies on previously validated scales. The final confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) obtained a good fit and provided evidence of scale validity.Findings– Overall, our results suggest that both formal and informal control mechanisms play a significant role explaining employees’ goal orientation. However, informal control mechanisms were found to play a more significant role explaining employees’ goal orientation.Research limitations/implications– This paper relies on employees from a single organization. In addition, it has a cross-sectional nature. The procedural and statistical remedies employed in this study suggest that method variance is not a concern.Practical implications– The results show that managers may resort to control mechanisms to influence the goal orientations of frontline service employees in a manner that is consistent with organizational objectives.Originality/value– To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that examines the impact of control mechanisms on employees’ goal orientation.
Firm-brand community value co-creation as alignment of practices
Authors: Skålén Per , Pace Stefano , Cova Bernard 
Published: April 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to contribute knowledge regarding the nature of successful and unsuccessful value co-creation processes between firms and brand communities and the strategies used to address the latter.

Design/methodology/approach
– The paper draws on a netnographic study of the online collaborative platform known as Alfisti.com, which carmaker Alfa Romeo launched to enhance co-creation with its most devoted consumers, the “Alfisti”.

Findings
– The findings identify three groups of collaborative practices: interacting, identity and organizing practices. The paper details how firm and brand community members enact the elements – procedures, understandings and engagements – of collaborative practices and how the alignment of these enactments impacts value co-creation.

Research limitations/implications
– The paper suggests that co-creation of value succeeds when the enactment of collaborative practices aligns, i.e. when firm and brand community members enact practices in a similar way, and that co-creation fails when the enactment of practices misaligns. Firms and brand communities use three realignment strategies – compliance, interpretation and orientation – to address the misalignment and failure of co-creation. The fact that the research draws on a single qualitative case study is a limitation.

Practical implications
– Managerial implications include using realignment strategies to manage firm-brand community co-creation.

Originality/value
– Creating an empirical-based framework regarding successful and failing co-creation and how the latter is addressed in the context of brand community makes the paper original.
The negative effect of team’s prior experience and technological turbulence on new service development projects with customer involvement
Authors: Carbonell Pilar , Rodriguez Escudero Ana Isabel 
Published: April 2015

Purpose
– The current study examines the negative moderating effects of team’s prior experience and technological turbulence on the antecedents and consequences of using information provided by customers involved in new service development (NSD). It also examines one way to mitigate the proposed negative effects.

Design/methodology/approach
– The unit of analysis was NSD projects in which customers had been involved during the development process. A self-administered mail survey was used to collect the data. The proposed model was tested using hierarchical path analysis.

Findings
– Results show that team’s prior experience reduces the extent to which recorded and shared information from customers involved in NSD is used for project-related decisions during the development process. Findings also reveal that technological turbulence can reduce the positive effect of using information provided from customers involved in NSD on new service advantage and service newness. Finally, results show that involving lead users in NSD can help reduce the negative moderating effects of team’s prior experience and technological turbulence.

Originality/value
– The literature on information use suggests that availability of information does not guarantee its use. In keeping with this argument, the current study reveals that for NSD projects with customer involvement, team’s prior experience and technological turbulence are part of the challenge of making effective use of the new knowledge that customers bring to the development project. Firms are advised to collaborate with lead users as a way to attenuate this problem.
Consumer dominant value creation
Authors: Anker Thomas Boysen , Sparks Leigh , Moutinho Luiz , Grönroos Christian 
Published: April 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the ontological and semantic foundations of consumer-dominant value creation to clarify the extent to which the call for a distinct consumer-dominant logic (CDL) is justified. This paper discusses consumer-driven value creation (value-in-use) across three different marketing logics: product-dominant logic (PDL), service-dominant logic (SDL) and CDL. PDL conceptualises value as created by firms and delivered to consumers through products. SDL frames consumer value as a function of direct provider-consumer interaction, or consumer-driven chains of action indirectly facilitated by the provider. Recently, the research focus has been turning to consumer-dominant value creation. While there is agreement on the significance of this phenomenon, there is disagreement over whether consumer-dominant value creation is an extension of SDL or calls for a distinct CDL.Design/methodology/approach– This is a conceptual paper, which is informed by five cases of consumer dominance. The cases are used to clarify rather than verify the analysis of the ontological and semantic underpinnings of consumer-dominant value creation.Findings– The ontological and semantic analysis demonstrates that PDL and SDL have insufficient explanatory power to accommodate substantial aspects of consumer-dominant value creation. By implication, this supports the call for a distinct CDL.Originality/value– This paper contributes to the ongoing theoretical debate over the explanatory power of SDL by demonstrating that SDL is unable to accommodate important ontological and semantic aspects of consumer-driven value creation.
The effects of introducing and terminating loyalty programs
Authors: Melnyk Valentyna , Bijmolt Tammo 
Published: April 2015

Purpose
– The goal of this paper is to empirically investigate the effects of an loyalty program (LP) introduction and termination, accounting for simultaneous effects of LP designs, cross-customer effects and competition effects. Despite firms across the globe spend billions of dollars on LPs, it is not clear: whether these programs enhance customer loyalty, what happens if a program is terminated and which LP design elements enhance effectiveness of LPs.

Design/methodology/approach
– The authors empirically investigate to what extent the effects of introducing and terminating a LP depend on: its monetary and non-monetary design elements, customer characteristics and competition. The empirical evidence is based on a bivariate hierarchical linear model, using a large-scale dataset involving 9,783 consumers rating 24 different LPs across eight industries.

Findings
– While the characteristics of LP are more important in influencing customer behavior when they join the LP, the competitive environment and the duration of membership in an LP are the primary drivers of customer reactions to LP termination. Non-monetary discrimination between members and non-members is a more powerful tool in creating customer loyalty than offering higher discounts or saving points. The effect of discrimination on loyalty sustains when an LP is terminated.

Research limitations/implications
– This is the first research to empirically investigate the effect of an LP termination, accounting for simultaneous effects of LP designs and competition effects. The authors measured behavioral intentions in a hypothetical case of LP termination. Future research could assess the effects of LP termination and the moderating role of both monetary and non-monetary design elements on other behavioral loyalty variables based on, e.g. household panel data, when such data on LP terminations across industries becomes available.

Practical implications
– When a firm considers the introduction of an LP or changing an existing one, non-monetary discrimination between members and non-members seems to be the most effective tool in building sustainable customer loyalty. Further, offering a relatively low saving rate is a viable way to keep costs down because the savings percentage does not significantly affect loyalty. For the same reason, firms can also consider reducing or eliminating LP-based discounts. The competitive environment and the duration of membership in an LP are the primary drivers of customer reactions to LP termination.

Originality/value
– To the best of authors’ knowledge, the potential effects of LP termination have not been addressed in the current literature. The authors empirically assess the effects of LP termination and effects of those programs at the introduction. Understanding the factors that moderate the potential negative impact of terminating an LP is of crucial importance to managers and researchers alike. The paper is of great value for firms that consider introducing, modifying or terminating an LP.
Antecedents and consequences of self-congruity
Authors: Roy Rajat , Rabbanee Fazlul K. 
Published: April 2015

Purpose
– This study aims to propose and test a parsimonious framework for self-congruity, albeit in the context of luxury branding. This paper is the first to propose an integrated model focusing on the drivers and consequences of self-congruity. The model is further applied to explain how self-congruity may motivate future experiences with the luxury brand, mainly by influencing self-perception. Although a substantive marketing literature on self-congruity currently exists, there is a lack of an integrated framework, a gap that the current work addresses.

Design/methodology/approach
– A paper and pencil survey was conducted among female subjects only, and structural path relationships were tested using AMOS.

Findings
– Consumers’ self-congruity with a luxury brand (non-luxury brand) is positively (negatively) influenced by its antecedents: social desirability, need for uniqueness and status consumption. Self-congruity with a luxury (non-luxury) brand is found to enhance (undermine) consumers’ self-perceptions. This, in turn, is found to have a stronger (weaker) positive impact on consumers’ motivation to re-use a shopping bag from luxury brand (non-luxury brand) for hedonic purpose. Mediation analyses show that self-congruity has a positive (negative) indirect effect on hedonic use via self-perception for luxury (non-luxury) brand.

Research limitations/implications
– Future studies may involve actual shoppers, causal design and additional variables like “utilitarian usage “of shopping bags to extend the proposed framework.

Practical implications
– A better understanding of the findings has implications for brand positioning, advertising and packaging.

Originality/value
– Till date, no research has examined a parsimonious model for self-congruity complete with its antecedents and consequences and tested it in the context of a luxury versus non-luxury brand.