bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Financing renewable energy: La Esperanza Hydroelectric Project
Authors: Jenkins Mauricio , Miguel Guevara Leo 
Published: October 2014

Purpose
– This is a teaching case to be used in courses on funding and execution of renewable-energy projects, sustainable development, project finance or management of financial institutions. The case has been successfully used in courses at the graduate level as well as in executive education. The purpose of this paper is to achieve the following specific objectives. First, to illustrate the adjusted present value (APV) methodology to value investment projects in a project finance setting. Second, to show how APV methodologies can be used to value investment projects with subsidized financing and temporary fiscal incentives. Third, to understand how financial institutions use debt service coverage ratios to measure the capacity of projects to repay debt obligations.

Design/methodology/approach
– The primary source of information for the study case came from in-depth interviews with senior officials from E+Co and project sponsors. Documents from E+Co's loan approval process and investment committee minutes were also consulted. Also a site visit was performed.

Findings
– The case is quite interesting along several dimensions. To begin with the case deals with an important (and somewhat difficult decision) the general manager of a financial institution has to make. From a technical point of view, the case involves an APV analysis and requires the estimation of the value added (or destroyed) by several collateral effects of debt in the capital structure of the project (something seldom treated in formal courses or standard finance textbooks). In addition, even though standard financial analysis would probably have led to select on alternative course of action, the authors know the protagonist of the case actually decided to do something different based on an additional analysis (a nice postscript for the case, therefore).

Research limitations/implications
– Been a case study, the findings may be quite particular of the particular situation and context. However, the case provides good insight into the difficulties and problems entrepreneurs face in developing economies as well as in funding small renewable energy projects around the world.

Practical implications
– The case provides a number of important lessons and learning opportunities for sponsors of renewable energy power projects and managers of financial institutions.

Originality/value
– Please refer to the findings section above.
Rethinking the role of roadmaps in strategic planning
Authors: Güney Senem , R. Taylor James 
Published: October 2014

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore the problem of reconfiguring epistemic boundaries and the authority relationships that these boundaries represent in corporate R&D. The authors focus the analysis on the mediation of this reconfiguration by project management tools, specifically the development plan and its subsidiary roadmaps and timelines.Design/methodology/approach– The authors analyze discourse data from an ethnographic study to showin situthe communication about and through project management tools in collaborative project development. The concepts of organizational map and mapping from the perspective of the communicative constitution of organization (CCO) frame the close-up analysis of this communication.Findings– The analysis reveals how the plan and its subsidiary texts participate in the negotiation and legitimation of epistemic ownership and authority for a collaborative strategy to be implemented. The authors illustrate the material agency of these texts in the objectification and prioritization of strategic choices in this implementation.Research limitations/implications– To conclude, the authors discuss the significance of exploring the mapping function of supposedly mundane representational tools used in project management.Originality/value– The originality of this study comes from applying the organizational map concept to demonstrate the politically charged materiality of project management tools in the discursive establishment of authority and accomplishment of corporate strategy.
Size, sex and individual‐level behaviour drive intrapopulation variation in cross‐ecosystem foraging of a top‐predator
Authors: Nifong James C. , Layman Craig A. , Silliman Brian R. 
Published: October 2014

SummaryLarge‐bodied, top‐predators are often highly mobile, with the potential to provide important linkages between spatially distinct food webs. What biological factors contribute to variation in cross‐ecosystem movements, however, have rarely been examined.Here, we investigated how ontogeny (body size), sex and individual‐level behaviour impacts intrapopulation variation in cross‐ecosystem foraging (i.e. between freshwater and marine systems), by the top‐predatorAlligator mississippiensis.Field surveys revealedA. mississippiensisuses marine ecosystems regularly and are abundant in estuarine tidal creeks (from 0·3 to 6·3 individuals per km of creek,n = 45 surveys).Alligator mississippiensiscaptured in marine/estuarine habitats were significantly larger than individuals captured in freshwater and intermediate habitats.Stomach content analysis (SCA) showed that small juveniles consumed marine/estuarine prey less frequently (6·7% of individuals) than did large juveniles (57·8%), subadult (73%), and adult (78%) size classes. Isotopic mixing model analysis (SIAR) also suggests substantial variation in use of marine/estuarine prey resources with differences among and within size classes between sexes and individuals (range of median estimates for marine/estuarine diet contribution = 0·05–0·76).These results demonstrate the importance of intrapopulation characteristics (body size, sex and individual specialization) as key determinants of the strength of predator‐driven ecosystem connectivity resulting from cross‐ecosystem foraging behaviours. Understanding the factors, which contribute to variation in cross‐ecosystem foraging behaviours, will improve our predictive understanding of the effects of top‐predators on community structure and ecosystem function.
Robust estimates of environmental effects on population vital rates: an integrated capture–recapture model of seasonal brook trout growth, survival and movement in a stream network
Authors: Letcher Benjamin H. , Schueller Paul , Bassar Ronald D. , Nislow Keith H. , Coombs Jason A. , Sakrejda Krzysztof , Morrissey Michael , Sigourney Douglas B. , Whiteley Andrew R. , O'Donnell Matthew J. , Dubreuil Todd L. 
Published: October 2014

Summary

Modelling the effects of environmental change on populations is a key challenge for ecologists, particularly as the pace of change increases. Currently, modelling efforts are limited by difficulties in establishing robust relationships between environmental drivers and population responses.

We developed an integrated capture–recapture state‐space model to estimate the effects of two key environmental drivers (stream flow and temperature) on demographic rates (body growth, movement and survival) using a long‐term (11 years), high‐resolution (individually tagged, sampled seasonally) data set of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) from four sites in a stream network. Our integrated model provides an effective context within which to estimate environmental driver effects because it takes full advantage of data by estimating (latent) state values for missing observations, because it propagates uncertainty among model components and because it accounts for the major demographic rates and interactions that contribute to annual survival.

We found that stream flow and temperature had strong effects on brook trout demography. Some effects, such as reduction in survival associated with low stream flow and high temperature during the summer season, were consistent across sites and age classes, suggesting that they may serve as robust indicators of vulnerability to environmental change. Other survival effects varied across ages, sites and seasons, indicating that flow and temperature may not be the primary drivers of survival in those cases. Flow and temperature also affected body growth rates; these responses were consistent across sites but differed dramatically between age classes and seasons. Finally, we found that tributary and mainstem sites responded differently to variation in flow and temperature.

Annual survival (combination of survival and body growth across seasons) was insensitive to body growth and was most sensitive to flow (positive) and temperature (negative) in the summer and fall.

These observations, combined with our ability to estimate the occurrence, magnitude and direction of fish movement between these habitat types, indicated that heterogeneity in response may provide a mechanism providing potential resilience to environmental change. Given that the challenges we faced in our study are likely to be common to many intensive data sets, the integrated modelling approach could be generally applicable and useful.
Acarbose treatment affects the serum levels of inflammatory cytokines and the gut content of bifidobacteria in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus
Authors: Su Benli , Liu Haixia , Li Jing , Sunli Yongjuan , Liu Ben , Liu Dandan , Zhang Ping , Meng Xiuxiang 
Published: October 2014

AbstractBackgroundThe effects of acarbose add‐on therapy on gut microbiota and inflammatory cytokines were investigated in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM).MethodsNinety‐five DM patients were randomly allocated to two groups: 59 to Group A who received antidiabetic treatment that included acarbose 150 mg/day, and 36 to Group B who received similar treatment to Group A but without acarbose. Forty‐five healthy volunteers were selected as a control group. Serum concentrations of inflammatory cytokines were determined by ELISA, and the contents of 16S rDNA of gut bacteria were determined by real‐time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. General linear analysis for repeated measurements was used to analyze trend differences between the two diabetic groups.ResultsAfter 4 weeks of antidiabetic treatment, the gut contents of Bifidobacterium longum and Enterococcus faecalis were significantly increased in both diabetes groups. The increase of Bifidobacterium longum (P = 0.004) and the decrease of lipopolysaccharides (LPS) (P < 0.001) and prothrombin activator inhibitor‐1 (P = 0.003) were more significant in Group A. Decreases of monocyte chemoattractant protein‐1 and LPS were more significant in patients whose HbA1c decrease was ≥1%, but there were no significant differences in the changes of other cytokines and gut bacteria between patients with HbA1c <7% and ≥7%. Pearson correlation analysis showed that changes of Enterococcus faecalis were negatively correlated with LPS, while multiple linear regression analysis showed a positive correlation of Bifidobacterium longum with acarbose treatment and the high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration.ConclusionsAcarbose treatment can increase the content of gut Bifidobacterium longum in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients and decrease some inflammatory cytokines independently of its antihyperglycemic effects.
Does fluoride in the water close the dental caries gap between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous children?
Authors: Lalloo R , Jamieson LM , Ha D , Ellershaw A , Luzzi L 
Published: October 2014

AbstractBackgroundIndigenous children experience significantly more dental caries than non‐Indigenous children. This study assessed if access to fluoride in the water closed the gap in dental caries between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous children.MethodsData from four states and two territories were sourced from the Child Dental Health Survey (CDHS) conducted in 2010. The outcomes were dental caries in the deciduous and permanent dentitions, and the explanatory variables were Indigenous status and access to fluoridated water (≥0.5 mg/L) prior to 2008.ResultsDental caries prevalence and severity for Indigenous and non‐Indigenous children, in both dentitions, was lower in fluoridated areas compared to non‐fluoridated areas. Among non‐Indigenous children, there was a 50.9% difference in mean dmft scores in fluoridated (1.70) compared to non‐fluoridated (2.86) areas. The difference between Indigenous children in fluoridated (3.29) compared to non‐fluoridated (4.16) areas was 23.4%. Among non‐Indigenous children there was a 79.7% difference in the mean DMFT scores in fluoridated (0.68) compared to non‐fluoridated (1.58) areas. The difference between Indigenous children in fluoridated (1.59) and non‐fluoridated (2.23) areas was 33.5%.ConclusionsWater fluoridation is effective in reducing dental caries, but does not appear to close the gap between non‐Indigenous children and Indigenous children.
The effect of red wood ant abundance on feeding damage by the pine weevil Hylobius abietis
Authors: Maňák Vítězslav , Björklund Niklas , Lenoir Lisette , Nordlander Göran 
Published: October 2014

Abstract

Red wood ants (Formica rufa group) are the dominant ant species in European forests that can affect the abundance of other arthropods (e.g. herbivorous insects in tree canopies or beetles on the forest floor).
Notably, ants can prevent pine weevils (Hylobius abietis) from feeding on conifer seedlings supplied with food sources for ants. This is a potentially important observation because the weevil is a serious pest in forest regeneration areas.
We hypothesized that frequent encounters between red wood ants and pine weevils on the ground may decrease the weevils' feeding on conifer seedlings. To test this hypothesis, we compared feeding damage caused by pine weevils on spruce seedlings in areas with high and low abundance of red wood ants.
Despite a four‐fold difference in the numbers of ants in pitfall trap samples, there were no significant differences between areas with high and low ant abundance in terms of feeding‐scar areas, proportions of attacked seedlings or proportions of killed seedlings.
Thus, in contrast to previously documented deterrent effects on ground‐dwelling beetles, high abundance of ants on the ground did not influence the feeding activity of pine weevils on the spruce seedlings. We conclude that the mechanisms underlying seedling protection by ants are probably mainly related to the ants' protection of food sources, whereas the frequency of encounters elsewhere has less effect on the weevils' feeding.
Prevalence of substance abuse in pregnancy among Danish women
Authors: Rausgaard Nete L.K. , Ibsen Inge O. , Jørgensen Jan S. , Lamont Ronald F. , Ravn Pernille 
Published: October 2014

AbstractThere are few recent data on the prevalence of substance abuse among Danish pregnant women. During 2013, in the Region of Southern Denmark, a cross‐sectional, anonymous, screening‐based study was conducted among pregnant women attending for routine ultrasound scan at 12 weeks gestation. The women submitted a urine sample and completed a short questionnaire. Urine samples were tested for opiates, cannabis, benzodiazepines, cocaine, methadone, amphetamine and methamphetamine. Positive samples underwent repeat analysis for confirmation. Of 690 pregnant women, 88.1% participated. Overall, 3.6% of women had a positive urine sample confirmed by repeated analysis. The age distribution in women with positive samples did not differ from the entire cohort. Our findings indicate a larger prevalence than anticipated, and that a substantial number of pregnant women with substance abuse are not appropriately referred to the focused specialist center for such women at risk.
Contribution of antepartum and intrapartum hemorrhage to the burden of maternal near miss and death in a national surveillance study
Authors: Rocha Filho Edilberto A. , Costa Maria L. , Cecatti Jose G. , Parpinelli Mary A. , Haddad Samira M. , Sousa Maria H. , Melo Elias F. , Surita Fernanda G. , Souza Joao P. 
Published: October 2014

AbstractObjectiveTo evaluate the occurrence of severe obstetric complications associated with antepartum and intrapartum hemorrhage among women from the Brazilian Network for Surveillance of Severe Maternal Morbidity.DesignMulticenter cross‐sectional study.SettingTwenty‐seven obstetric referral units in Brazil between July 2009 and June 2010.PopulationA total of 9555 women categorized as having obstetric complications.MethodsThe occurrence of potentially life‐threatening conditions, maternal near miss and maternal deaths associated with antepartum and intrapartum hemorrhage was evaluated. Sociodemographic and obstetric characteristics and the use of criteria for management of severe bleeding were also assessed in these women.Main outcome measuresThe prevalence ratios with their respective 95% confidence intervals adjusted for the cluster effect of the design, and multiple logistic regression analysis were performed to identify factors independently associated with the occurrence of severe maternal outcome.ResultsAntepartum and intrapartum hemorrhage occurred in only 8% (767) of women experiencing any type of obstetric complication. However, it was responsible for 18.2% (140) of maternal near miss and 10% (14) of maternal death cases. On multivariate analysis, maternal age and previous cesarean section were shown to be independently associated with an increased risk of severe maternal outcome (near miss or death).ConclusionSevere maternal outcome due to antepartum and intrapartum hemorrhage was highly prevalent among Brazilian women. Certain risk factors, maternal age and previous cesarean delivery in particular, were associated with the occurrence of bleeding.
Minimum Clinically Important Difference in Medical Studies
Authors: Hedayat A. S. , Wang Junhui , Xu Tu 
Published: October 2014

Summary
In clinical trials, minimum clinically important difference (MCID) has attracted increasing interest as an important supportive clinical and statistical inference tool. Many estimation methods have been developed based on various intuitions, while little theoretical justification has been established. This article proposes a new estimation framework of the MCID using both diagnostic measurements and patient-reported outcomes (PROs). The framework first formulates the population-based MCID as a large margin classification problem, and then extends to the personalized MCID to allow individualized thresholding value for patients whose clinical profiles may affect their PRO responses. More importantly, the proposed estimation framework is showed to be asymptotically consistent, and a finite-sample upper bound is established for its prediction accuracy compared against the ideal MCID. The advantage of our proposed method is also demonstrated in a variety of simulated experiments as well as two phase-3 clinical trials.
Financial strain, inflammatory factors, and haemoglobin A1c levels in African American women
Authors: Cutrona Carolyn E. , Abraham William T. , Russell Daniel W. , Beach Steven R. H. , Gibbons Frederick X. , Gerrard Meg , Monick Martha , Philibert Robert 
Published: October 2014

ObjectiveType 2 diabetes disproportionately affects African American women, a population exposed to high levels of stress, including financial strain (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, 2011, http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pubs/pdf/ndfs_2011.pdf). We tested a mediational model in which chronic financial strain among African American women contributes to elevated serum inflammation markers, which, in turn, lead to increased haemoglobin A1C (HbA1c) levels and risk for type 2 diabetes.MethodsWe assessed level of financial strain four times over a 10‐year period and tested its effect on two serum inflammation markers, C‐reactive protein (CRP) and soluble interleukin‐6 receptor (sIL‐6R) in year 11 of the study. We tested the inflammation markers as mediators in the association between chronic financial strain and HbA1c, an index of average blood glucose level over several months.DesignData were from 312 non‐diabetic African American women from the Family and Community Health Study (FACHS; Cutrona et al., 2000, J. Pers. Soc. Psychol., 79, 1088).ResultsChronic financial strain predicted circulating sIL‐6R after controlling for age, BMI, health behaviours, and physical health measures. In turn, sIL‐6R significantly predicted HbA1c levels. The path between chronic financial strain and HbA1c was significantly mediated by sIL‐6R. Contrary to prediction, CRP was not predicted by chronic financial strain.ConclusionsResults support the role of inflammatory factors in mediating the effects of psychosocial stressors on risk for type 2 diabetes. Findings have implications for interventions that boost economic security and foster effective coping as well as medical interventions that reduce serum inflammation to prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes.
Statement of contributionWhat is already known on this subject? Financial strain is a risk factor for many disorders, and it is associated with inflammation in the peripheral bloodstream. Inflammation processes are known to be associated with insulin resistance, a risk factor for type 2 diabetes mellitus.

What does this study add?

Financial strain, a psychological stressor, predicts higher levels of an inflammatory marker, sIL‐6r, when controlling for a set of known predictors of inflammation.

This inflammatory marker, in turn, predicts haemoglobin A1C level, a marker of risk for diabetes.

The association between financial strain, a psychological stressor, and hemoglobin A1C is mediated by the inflammatory marker, sIL‐6r, suggesting that one mechanism through which psychological stressors increase risk for diabetes is through inflammatory mechanisms.
Hypothermic machine perfusion improves Doppler ultrasonography resistive indices and long‐term allograft function after renal transplantation: a single‐centre analysis
Authors: Dion Marie S. , McGregor Thomas B. , McAlister Vivian C. , Luke Patrick P. , Sener Alp 
Published: October 2014

ObjectivesTo evaluate whether hypothermic machine perfusion (HMP) of transplanted kidneys can improve long‐term renal allograft function compared with static cold storage (CS).MethodsWe evaluated whether graft Doppler ultrasonography resistive indices improved with the use of HMP compared with CS preservation, and examined whether these improvements were predictive of long‐term graft function. A total of 30 kidney transplants (15 pairs) were examined. One of the kidney pairs was placed on CS and transplanted first (CS group, n = 15). The other kidney of each pair was placed on HMP and transplanted after the CS group (HMP group, n = 15). Doppler ultrasonography was performed on days 1 and 7 after transplantation and resistive indices were evaluated. The estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was monitored for 24 months after transplantation.ResultsDespite longer cold ischaemia times, kidneys maintained with HMP had lower resistive indices (P = 0.005) with correspondingly higher eGFR throughout the follow‐up. Subgroup analysis showed that the HMP‐induced improvement in postoperative eGFR was greatest in kidneys obtained from donation after cardiac death (DCD), even at 2 years after transplantation (P = 0.008).ConclusionsHMP of transplant kidneys appears to improve vascular resistance after transplantation and has a positive impact on long‐term allograft function compared with CS in the population of recipients of DCD kidneys.