bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Urban and rural differences
Authors: Hsieh Tsui‐Chuan , Yang Keng‐Chieh , Yang Conna , Yang Chyan 
Published: March 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to investigate urban and rural differences for online activities and e‐payment behavior patterns.Design/methodology/approachThis study applied the MLCA model to investigate Internet usage patterns from 11 online applications among 10,909 Taiwan residents in 25 different regions.FindingsThe results showed that online behavior patterns exhibited regional differences, as the regional segments affected the individual segments of different use patterns. For instance, the urban area comprised a higher proportion of members who were accustomed to internet applications and skilled in online shopping by using a credit card. The rural area made up a higher proportion of members who only occasionally used online services. Moreover, rural region residents used other payment methods (excluding credit cards) more often than urban region residents. As expected, users’ personal characteristics also dictated the online behavior pattern. For instance, people with higher‐level income spent relatively more money for online shopping and often used various internet applications than others.Practical implicationsThe findings herein should help Internet service providers form an applicable guideline for developing service strategies of higher service satisfaction regarding products and users’ needs.Originality/valueThis study implemented a multilevel latent class model to investigate online behavior patterns that exhibited urban and rural differences, with the goal of providing service providers an understanding and mastery of their target users.
Modeling utilitarian‐hedonic dual mediation (UHDM) in the purchase and use of games
Authors: Davis Robert , Lang Bodo , Gautam Neil 
Published: March 2013

PurposeIt is assumed that consumers consume games to experience hedonic and utilitarian value. However, there is no conceptual model or empirical evidence that supports this hypothesis in the game context or clarifies whether these consumption values have dual mediated or individual effects. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to model the relationship between hedonic and utilitarian consumption and game purchase and usage.Design/methodology/approachThis research question is answered through two studies. In Study One, qualitative interviews with 18 gamers were implemented to explore the relationship between hedonic and utilitarian consumption and, game purchase and usage behaviour. In Study Two, we surveyed 493 consumers and conducted confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling across four game types to model this relationship.FindingsThe paper concludes that hedonic rather than utilitarian consumption positively impacts purchase and usage. Support was also found for the utilitarian‐hedonic dual mediation model (UHDM). Therefore, utilitarian consumption has an indirect causal effect on game purchase or usage through hedonic consumption.Practical implicationsGame development for consumers online, on wireless devices and on consoles should place greater emphasis on the practical implications of hedonic consumption. Attention could be focused on perceived enjoyment, self‐concept, self‐congruity and self‐efficacy as the primary drivers of use and purchase. Practical solutions should also be developed to develop the UHDM effect.Originality/valueThis is the first paper in the game context to explore and model the relationship between hedonic, utilitarian consumption and the UHDM effect on game purchase and usage. This paper is also unique because it provides results across four game groups: all games (ALL), Sports/Simulation/Driving (SSD), Role Playing Game/Massively Multiplayer Online Role‐Playing Game Strategy (RPG), and Action/Adventure/Fighting (AAF).
Leadership, clinician managers and a thing called “hybridity”
Authors: Fulop Liz 
Published: March 2013

PurposeIn many countries leadership theories and leadership development programs in healthcare have been dominated by individualistic and heroic approaches that focus on developing the skills and competencies of health professionals. Alternative approaches have been proffered but mainly in the form of post‐heroic and distributed forms of leadership. The notion of “hybridity” has emerged to challenge the assumptions of distributed leadership. The paper seeks to explore how the concept of hybridity can be used to re‐theorize leadership in healthcare as it relates to clinician managers (or hybrid‐professional managers).Design/methodology/approachThe theoretical developments are explored and empirical material is presented from research in Australian public hospitals to support the case for the existence of hybridized forms of leadership in healthcare. The paper discusses whether hybridity needs re‐theorizing to adequately account for clinician leadership. It contributes to debates surrounding the role of clinician leadership in healthcare reform particularly in relation to those doctors who occupy management positions at the division or unit levels as distinct to CEOs. The study uses qualitative research, i.e. interactive interviews to present accounts of how healthcare professionals describe leadership. It undertakes both deductive and inductive theme analysis of the interview material.FindingsThere is support for hybridized configurations of leadership in interview materials of healthcare professionals but other aspects were also noted that cannot be explained by this approach alone.Originality/valueThe paper is the first to examine the concept of hybridity in the context of clinician leadership. Many approaches to leadership in healthcare fail to address the complexity of leadership within the ranks of clinician managers and thus are unable to deal adequately with the role of leadership in healthcare reform and change.
Sensemaking: a driving force behind the integration of professional practices
Authors: Sylvain Chantal , Lamothe Lise 
Published: March 2013

PurposeThere has been considerable effort in recent years to link and integrate professional services more closely for patients with comorbidities. However, difficulties persist, especially at the clinical level. This study aims to shed light on these difficulties by examining the process of sensemaking in professionals directly involved in this integration.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted an eight‐year longitudinal case study of an organization specializing in mental health and substance abuse. Different data collection methods were used, including 34 interviews conducted between 2003 and 2009, observations and document analysis. The authors performed a qualitative analysis of the data using a processual perspective.FindingsThis paper provides empirical insights about the nature of the sensemaking process in which professionals collectively participate and the effects of this process on the evolution of integrated services. It suggests that the development of integrated practices results from an evolutional and collective process of constructing meanings that is rooted in the work activities of the professionals involved.Practical implicationsBy drawing attention to the capacity of professionals to shape the projects they are implementing, this study questions the capacity of managers to actually manage such a process. In order to obtain the expected benefits of integration projects, such emergent dynamics must first be recognized and then supported. Only then can thought be given to mastering them.Research limitations/implicationsThe fact that this is a single case study is not a limitation per se, although it does raise the issue of the transferability of results. Replicating the study in other contexts would verify the applicability of the authors' conclusions.Originality/valueThis study offers a fresh perspective on the difficulties generally encountered at the clinical level when trying to integrate services. It makes a significant contribution to work on the dynamics of sensemaking in organizational life.
Schools' absorptive capacity to innovate in health promotion
Authors: Deschesnes Marthe , Drouin Nathalie , Couturier Yves 
Published: March 2013

PurposeA comprehensive “health promoting schools” (HPS) approach is advocated by the World Health Organization to foster the health of students. To date, few studies have evaluated schools' capacity to implement it in an optimal way. The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework that identifies core features likely to facilitate the incorporation of innovation, such as HPS, into school functioning.Design/methodology/approachThe framework was built by combining dimensions derived from two major strands of literature, i.e. management and HPS. It has taken root in Zahra and George's model of organisation absorptive capacity (AC) for new knowledge but has been adapted to better explore AC in a school context. The contrasting cases of two secondary schools that adopted a HPS approach in Quebec, Canada, for at least three years were used to illustrate the value of the framework.FindingsThe framework proposed is a multidimensional model that considers components such as modulators, antecedents, integration mechanisms and strategic levers as potential determinants of AC, i.e. acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation. The conceptual framework helped to qualify and compare AC regarding HPS in the two cases and holds promise to appreciate mechanisms having the greatest influence on it.Originality/valueThe framework can serve as a conceptual guide to facilitate the absorption of innovation in schools and to design future empirical research to better understand the underlying process by which schools strengthen their capacities to become settings conducive to the health of youth.
Healthcare performance turned into decision support
Authors: Michel Sørup Christian , Jacobsen Peter 
Published: March 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to first create an overview of relevant factors directly influencing employee absence in the healthcare sector. The overview is used to further investigate the factors identified using employee satisfaction survey scores exclusively. The result of the overall objective is a management framework that allows managers to gain insight into the current status of risk factors with high influence on employee absence levels.Design/methodology/approachThe research consists of a quantitative literature study supported by formal and semi‐formal interviews conducted at the case organisations. Employee satisfaction surveys were applied to analyse the development over time of selected factors correlated with concurrent employee absence rates. Checking for causal results, comparisons with the included published literature findings were also carried out.FindingsFour major clustered factors, three of which constitute the term “social capital”, showed a high degree of connection with employee absence rates. The factors are general satisfaction, fairness, reliance and co‐operation. Integrating the four elements in a management framework will provide valuable and holistic information about the determinants with regard to current levels of employee absence. The framework will be a valuable support for leaders with the authority to alter the determinants of employee absence.Research limitations/implicationsSince a great part of the empirical material is supplied from the healthcare sector, the results obtained could be restricted to this sector. Inclusion of data from Arbejdsmarkedets Tillægspension (ATP) showed no deviation from the results in the healthcare sector.Practical implicationsThe product of the study is a decision support tool for leaders to cope with levels of employee absence. The framework is holistic and can prove to be a valuable tool to take a bearing of where to focus future initiatives.Originality/valueGathering former observational studies in a complete overview embracing many relevant factors that influence sickness absence has not yet been attempted. Hospital management is provided with valuable information when given insight into the factors that control employee absence behaviour. Having this insight will enable the managers to promote a healthy working environment, thus lowering employee absence rates to a minimum.
Ends Changed, Means Retained: Scholarship Programs, Political Influence, and Drifting Goals
Authors: Wilson Iain 
Published: March 2013

Research Highlights and Abstract Governments offer scholarships to foreign nationals expected to become influential in their home countries and shape public opinion to the benefit of their sponsor. This is known as the ‘opinion leader’ model. The histories of three British scholarship programs whose directors now subscribe to the ‘opinion leader’ model suggest they were actually set up for other reasons. Beliefs about what the programs are for have shifted toward the ‘opinion leader’ model even as they have continued to do the same things. The pattern of changing objectives seems to fit a Kingdonian model of the policy process. Many governments offer scholarships specifically to foreign citizens. In recent years both policymakers and academics have associated these scholarships with political influence, arguing that they generate sympathetic and influential alumni who support positive relationships between their home country and their sponsor. Digging deeper into the histories of several scholarship programs which are now being portrayed in this way shows they were actually set up for very different reasons. Explanations for why scholarships are being given to foreign citizens have changed over time, consistent with a Kingdonian model of the policy process. We need to be cautious about taking these claims at face value, an important reminder for foreign policy analysts more generally.
Magnesium sulphate for prevention of eclampsia: are intramuscular and intravenous regimens equivalent? A population pharmacokinetic study
Authors: Salinger DH , Mundle S , Regi A , Bracken H , Winikoff B , Vicini P , Easterling T 
Published: March 2013

ObjectiveTo compare magnesium sulphate concentrations achieved by intramuscular and intravenous regimens used for the prevention of eclampsia.SettingLow‐resource obstetric hospitals in Nagpur and Vellore, India.PopulationPregnant women at risk for eclampsia due to hypertensive disease.MethodsA pharmacokinetic study was performed as part of a randomised trial that enrolled 300 women comparing intramuscular and intravenous maintenance regimens of magnesium dosing. Data from 258 enrolled women were analysed in the pharmacokinetic study. A single sample was drawn per woman with the expectation of using samples in a pooled data analysis.Main outcome measuresPharmacokinetic parameters of magnesium distribution and clearance.ResultsMagnesium clearance was estimated to be 48.1 dl/hour, volume of distribution to be 156 dl and intramuscular bioavailability to be 86.2%. The intramuscular regimen produced higher initial serum concentrations, consistent with a substantially larger loading dose. At steady state, magnesium concentrations in the intramuscular and intravenous groups were comparable. With either regimen, a substantial number of women would be expected to have serum concentrations lower than those generally held to be therapeutic.ConclusionsClinical implications were that a larger loading dose for the intravenous regimen should be considered; where feasible, individualised dosing of magnesium sulphate would reduce the variability in serum concentrations and might result in more women with clinically effective magnesium concentrations; and lower dose magnesium suphate regimens should be considered with caution.
Microbiota and healthy ageing: observational and nutritional intervention studies
Authors: Brüssow Harald 
Published: March 2013

SummaryHundred years ago Metchnikoff associated human health and particularly healthy ageing with a specific type of gut microbiota. Classical culture methods associated a decrease in bifidobacteria and an increase in enterobacteria with ageing. Modern molecular methods blurred this simple picture and documented a substantial inter‐individual variability for the gut microbiome even when stratifying the elderly subjects according to health status. Nutritional interventions with resistant starch showed consistent gut microbiota changes across studies from different geographical areas and prebiotic supplementation induced a 10‐fold increase in gut bifidobacteria. However, in the ELDERMET study, microbiota changes do not precede, but follow the changes in health status of elderly subjects possibly as a consequence of diet changes.
Detection of multiple species of human Paragonimus from Mexico using morphological data and molecular barcodes
Authors: López‐Caballero J. , Oceguera‐Figueroa A. , León‐Règagnon V. 
Published: March 2013

AbstractParagonimus mexicanus is the causal agent of human paragonimiasis in several countries of the Americas. It is considered to be the only species of the genus present in Mexico, where it is responsible for human infection. Through the investigation of P. mexicanus specimens from several places throughout Mexico, we provide morphological, molecular and geographical evidence that strongly suggests the presence of at least three species from this genus in Mexico. These results raise questions regarding the diagnosis, treatment, prophylaxis and control of human paragonimiasis in Mexico. We also provide a brief discussion regarding biodiversity inventories and the convenience of providing molecular and morphological information in biodiversity studies.
Indexing butterfly abundance whilst accounting for missing counts and variability in seasonal pattern
Authors: Dennis Emily B. , Freeman Stephen N. , Brereton Tom , Roy David B. 
Published: March 2013

Summary

Volunteer‐based ‘citizen science’ schemes now play a valuable role in deriving biodiversity indicators, both aiding the development of conservation policies and measuring the success of management. We provide a new method for analysing such data based on counts of invertebrate species characterised by highly variable numbers within a season combined with a substantial proportion of proposed survey visits not made.

Using the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) for illustration, we propose a two‐stage model that makes more efficient use of the data than previous analyses, whilst accounting for missing values. Firstly, generalised additive models were applied separately to data from each year to estimate the annual seasonal flight patterns. The estimated daily values were then normalised to estimate a seasonal pattern that is the same across sites but differs between years. A model was then fitted to the full set of annual counts, with seasonal values as an offset, to estimate annual changes in abundance accounting for the varying seasonality.

The method was tested and compared against the current approach and a simple linear interpolation using simulated data, parameterised with values estimated from UKBMS data for three example species. The simulation study demonstrated accurate estimation of linear time trends and improved power for detecting trends compared with the current model.

Comparison of indices for species covered by the UKBMS under the various model approaches showed similar predicted trends over time, but confidence intervals were generally narrower for the two‐stage model.

In addition to creating more robust trend estimates, the new method allows all volunteer records to contribute to the indices and thus incorporates data from more populations within the geographical range of a species. On average, the current model only enables data from 60% of 10 km2 grid squares with monitored sites to be included, whereas the two‐stage model uses all available data and hence provides full coverage at least of the monitored area. As many invertebrate species exhibit similar patterns of emergence or voltinism, our two‐stage method could be applied to other taxa.
Can Carbon Monoxide Prevent Infection‐Mediated Preterm Birth in a Mouse Model?
Authors: Peltier Morgan R. , Koo Hschi‐Chi , Gurzenda Ellen M. , Arita Yuko , Klimova Natalia G. , Olgun Niccole , Hanna Nazeeh 
Published: March 2013

ProblemPreterm birth is frequently caused by intrauterine infection and inflammation. Recent studies have demonstrated that carbon monoxide (CO), which is produced endogenously, has potent anti‐inflammatory properties. Whether or not CO can prevent infection‐mediated preterm birth is unknown.MethodsMice were assigned to one of four groups: sham infection, sham infection + CO, infection, or infection + CO. Infections were established by intra‐uterine injection of Escherichia coli on day 14 of pregnancy. Animals received daily i.p. injections of 1 mL CO‐saturated lactated ringers solution (LRS) or LRS alone beginning on the morning of surgery. Gestational age at delivery and litter characteristics was noted. In second experiment, animals were sacrificed 24 hrs post‐surgery and tissues were harvested for cytokine analyses.ResultsEscherichia coli intrauterine infection increased the number of animals delivering preterm. This effect was significantly ameliorated by CO‐LRS. CO‐treatment also increased litter size and weights of the surviving offspring. Cytokines in the amniotic fluid and the placenta were increased by E. coli exposure, but CO had no detectible effect on E. coli‐stimulated cytokine production. No effects of CO were detected in sham‐infected animals.ConclusionSupplemental CO improves pregnancy outcome after intrauterine infection and may function at a point downstream of, or through pathways independent of, induction of proinflammatory cytokines.
Tacrolimus placental transfer at delivery and neonatal exposure through breast milk
Authors: Zheng Songmao , Easterling Thomas R. , Hays Karen , Umans Jason G. , Miodovnik Menachem , Clark Shannon , Calamia Justina C. , Thummel Kenneth E. , Shen Danny D. , Davis Connie L. , Hebert Mary F. 
Published: March 2013

Aim(s)The current investigation aims to provide new insights into fetal exposure to tacrolimus in utero by evaluating maternal and umbilical cord blood (venous and arterial), plasma and unbound concentrations at delivery. This study also presents a case report of tacrolimus excretion via breast milk.MethodsMaternal and umbilical cord (venous and arterial) samples were obtained at delivery from eight solid organ allograft recipients to measure tacrolimus and metabolite bound and unbound concentrations in blood and plasma. Tacrolimus pharmacokinetics in breast milk were assessed in one subject.ResultsMean (±SD) tacrolimus concentrations at the time of delivery in umbilical cord venous blood (6.6 ± 1.8 ng ml−1) were 71 ± 18% (range 45–99%) of maternal concentrations (9.0 ± 3.4 ng ml−1). The mean umbilical cord venous plasma (0.09 ± 0.04 ng ml−1) and unbound drug concentrations (0.003 ± 0.001 ng ml−1) were approximately one fifth of the respective maternal concentrations. Arterial umbilical cord blood concentrations of tacrolimus were 100 ± 12% of umbilical venous concentrations. In addition, infant exposure to tacrolimus through the breast milk was less than 0.3% of the mother's weight‐adjusted dose.ConclusionsDifferences between maternal and umbilical cord tacrolimus concentrations may be explained in part by placental P‐gp function, greater red blood cell partitioning and higher haematocrit levels in venous cord blood. The neonatal drug exposure to tacrolimus via breast milk is very low and likely does not represent a health risk to the breastfeeding infant.