bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The qualitative research interview
Authors: Qu Sandy Q. , Dumay John 
Published: September 2011

PurposeDespite the growing pressure to encourage new ways of thinking about research methodology, only recently have interview methodologists begun to realize that “we cannot lift the results of interviewing out of the contexts in which they were gathered and claim them as objective data with no strings attached”. The purpose of this paper is to provide additional insight based on a critical reflection of the interview as a research method drawing upon Alvesson's discussion from the neopositivist, romanticist and localist interview perspectives. Specifically, the authors focus on critical reflections of three broad categories of a continuum of interview methods: structured, semi‐structured and unstructured interviews.Design/methodology/approachThe authors adopt a critical and reflexive approach to understanding the literature on interviews to develop alternative insights about the use of interviews as a qualitative research method.FindingsAfter examining the neopositivist (interview as a “tool”) and romanticist (interview as “human encounter”) perspectives on the use of the research interview, the authors adopt a localist perspective towards interviews and argue that the localist approach opens up alternative understanding of the interview process and the accounts produced provide additional insights. The insights are used to outline the skills researchers need to develop in applying the localist perspective to interviews.Originality/valueThe paper provides an alternative perspective on the practice of conducting interviews, recognizing interviews as complex social and organizational phenomena rather than just a research method.
Nonlinearity of the effects of police stressors on police officer burnout
Authors: Vuorensyrjä Matti , Mälkiä Matti 
Published: September 2011

PurposeThis paper aims to take a look at police‐specific factors of stress – police stressors – and to assess the effects of these factors on police officer burnout. The paper also seeks to test the linearity of these effects.Design/methodology/approachThe study focuses on four stressors: defective leadership, role conflicts, threat of violence, and time pressure. As a measure of burnout, Bergen Burnout Indicator 15 is used. The data are cross‐section in nature and come from the Police Personnel Barometer (PPB) conducted in Finland in 2008. The PPB‐survey targeted the entire police administration in Finland. The response rate was 67.2 percent (n=6,871). The current paper uses a sub‐sample of police officers (constable rank) from three functional areas of policing (n=2,821).FindingsControlling for age, gender, education, shift work, tenure and the function of the police officer, the effects of the different stressors on burnout were all statistically significant. Statistically significant and robust nonlinear effects of the stressors on burnout were also found.Originality/valueThe study introduces a new measure of stress to analyze police work. It takes a preliminary look at the reliability and validity of the measure. The study considers linear as well as nonlinear effects of the stressors on burnout and suggests that the effects under scrutiny are essentially nonlinear.
Extending Lundman's theory on policing: the evidence from the literature focusing on India
Authors: de Guzman Melchor C. , Swaroop Kumar Korni 
Published: September 2011

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine and propose an extension of Lundman's theory. Lundman presented a theoretical framework that predicted the evolution of policing from an informal to a formal type. Essentially, he stated that the types of policing in society were determined by the patterns of solidarity, élite interests, and crimes rates/images of disorder. This research argued that the theory could be extended not only to predict the type of policing but also the quality and quantity of policing. Particularly, this research explored the relationships of the élite interest and the rates/images of criminality to policing practices by examining evidence from the research literature about India.Design/methodology/approachResearch studies about Indian police practices were extracted from the major western criminology, criminal justice, and policing journals. Using content analyses, two propositions were analyzed. The first proposition was that the evidence from the literature would suggest that threats of the disadvantaged and marginalized groups against the dominant élite groups would influence the quality of policing. The second proposition was that the evidence from the literature would show that rates and images of criminality would influence the quantity of policing.FindingsVery little quantitative literature exists to examine the propositions using meta‐analysis. The existing policing literature from India that was examined indicated support for the propositions.Research limitations/implicationsAs the literature was mostly anecdotal and normative, a more dynamic view of the relationships among the variables should be explored using the positivist approach.Originality/valuePolice characters are influenced by the social order. Systemic reforms often fail because of the obstacles presented by the social and political influences. Therefore, a larger social reform should be undertaken.
Policing isolated Aboriginal communities: perspectives of Canadian officers
Authors: Lithopoulos Savvas , Ruddell Rick 
Published: September 2011

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to compare the self‐reported attitudes toward Aboriginal policing of officers in isolated/remote communities with those from accessible Aboriginal communities.Design/methodology/approachSurvey results are reported for 294 officers working in Aboriginal communities throughout Canada.FindingsOfficers working in remote jurisdictions tended to be younger, better educated, and had less policing experience than those working in non‐isolated Aboriginal communities. Social problems in these remote communities were thought to be more serious than those reported by officers working in accessible Aboriginal communities. Despite these demographic and contextual differences, self‐reported attitudes toward Aboriginal policing were generally similar, although officers working in isolated communities tended to report more conservative views on enforcement.Research limitations/implicationsThe generalizability of the results is limited by the modest (40.7 percent) response rate, and the fact that officers working in Aboriginal agencies were less likely to participate than those working for national or provincial police services.Practical implicationsThe results suggest that more effective recruiting, training, and retention strategies should be developed for officers working in Aboriginal communities.Originality/valueThis is the first comprehensive study of the perceptions of officers toward Aboriginal policing. While the police in isolated communities represent a small proportion of all law enforcement officers, their insight sheds light on this often misunderstood and under‐researched aspect of law enforcement.
Avian body size changes and climate change: warming or increasing variability?
Authors: Goodman Rae E. , Lebuhn Gretchen , Seavy Nathaniel E. , Gardali Thomas , Bluso‐Demers Jill D. 
Published: September 2011

AbstractThere has been a growing interest in whether established ecogeographical patterns, such as Bergmann's rule, explain changes in animal morphology related to climate change. Bergmann's rule has often been used to predict that body size will decrease as the climate warms, but the predictions about how body size will change are critically dependent on the mechanistic explanation behind the rule. To investigate change in avian body size in western North America, we used two long‐term banding data sets from central California, USA; the data spanned 40 years (1971–2010) at one site and 27 years (1983–2009) at the other. We found that wing length of birds captured at both sites has been steadily increasing at a rate of 0.024–0.084% per year. Although changes in body mass were not always significant, when they were, the trend was positive and the magnitudes of significant trends were similar to those for wing length (0.040–0.112% per year). There was no clear difference between the rates of change of long‐distance vs. short‐distance migrants or between birds that bred locally compared to those that bred to the north of the sites. Previous studies from other regions of the world have documented decreases in avian body size and have used Bergmann's rule and increases in mean temperature to explain these shifts. Because our results do not support this pattern, we propose that rather than responding to increasing mean temperatures, avian body size in central California may be influenced by changing climatic variability or changes in primary productivity. More information on regional variation in the rates of avian body size change will be needed to test these hypotheses.
Antibacterial activity of two MTA‐based root canal sealers
Authors: Morgental R. D. , Vier‐Pelisser F. V. , Oliveira S. D. , Antunes F. C. , Cogo D. M. , Kopper P. M. P. 
Published: September 2011

Morgental RD, Vier‐Pelisser FV, Oliveira SD, Antunes FC, Cogo DM, Kopper PMP. Antibacterial activity of two MTA‐based root canal sealers. International Endodontic Journal, 44, 1128–1133, 2011.AbstractAim  To evaluate the pH and antibacterial activity of Endo CPM Sealer and MTA Fillapex by two different methods, using white MTA and Endofill as references for comparison.Methodology  Antibacterial activity was evaluated against Enterococcus faecalis (ATCC 29212). The agar diffusion test (ADT) was performed to evaluate the effect before setting. The materials were placed in four equidistant wells made in ten agar plates. After incubation at 37 °C for 48 h, the inhibition zones were measured using a digital paquimeter. The direct contact test (DCT) was performed to assess the antibacterial effect after setting. Suspensions of crushed materials were prepared and mixed with E. faecalis. After different periods of time (1, 6, 15 and 60 min), the survival of bacteria was assessed by using 10‐fold serial dilution and cultivated on agar plates in triplicate. Colony‐forming units (CFU) mL−1 were calculated after incubation. pH values were also measured in triplicate. Comparison between sealers in the ADT and DCT was performed by the Kruskal–Wallis test.Results  In the ADT, inhibition zones were found with MTA Fillapex and Endofill. They were similar to each other and greater than the other sealers (P < 0.05). None of the tested sealers demonstrated antibacterial activity in the DCT, and thus, all sealers had similar bacterial counts compared with the negative control group (P > 0.05). White MTA and Endo CPM Sealer suspensions had pH values >11, whilst MTA Fillapex and Endofill had lower values.Conclusions  MTA Fillapex and Endofill had an antibacterial effect against E. faecalis before setting, but none of the sealers maintained antibacterial activity after setting, despite the high pH of the MTA‐based materials.
Phylogenetic structure illuminates the mechanistic role of environmental heterogeneity in community organization
Authors: Stevens Richard D. , Gavilanez Maria M. , Tello Juan S. , Ray David A. 
Published: September 2011

Summary1. Diversity begets diversity. Numerous published positive correlations between environmental heterogeneity and species diversity indicate ubiquity of this phenomenon. Nonetheless, most assessments of this relationship are phenomenological and provide little insight into the mechanism whereby such positive association results.2. Two unresolved issues could better illuminate the mechanistic basis to diversity begets diversity. First, as environmental heterogeneity increases, both productivity and the species richness that contributes to that productivity often increase in a correlated fashion thus obscuring the primary driver. Second, it is unclear how species are added to communities as diversity increases and whether additions are trait based.3. We examined these issues based on 31 rodent communities in the central Mojave Desert. At each site, we estimated rodent species richness and characterized environmental heterogeneity from the perspectives of standing primary productivity and number of seed resources. We further examined the phylogenetic structure of communities by estimating the mean phylogenetic distance (MPD) among species and by comparing empirical phylogenetic distances to those based on random assembly from a regional species pool.4. The relationship between rodent species diversity and environmental heterogeneity was positive and significant. Moreover, diversity of resources accounted for more unique variation than did total productivity, suggesting that variety and not total amount of resource was the driver of increased rodent diversity. Relationships between environmental heterogeneity and phylogenetic distance were negative and significant; species were significantly phylogenetically over‐dispersed in communities of low environmental heterogeneity and became more clumped as environmental heterogeneity increased.5. Results suggest that species diversity increases with environmental heterogeneity because a wider variety of resources allow greater species packing within communities.
Securing the future of the natural environment: using scenarios to anticipate challenges to biodiversity, landscapes and public engagement with nature
Authors: Kass Gary S. , Shaw Rosalind F. , Tew Tom , Macdonald David W. 
Published: September 2011

Summary1. Maintaining and protecting biodiversity for the future under changing environmental and socio‐political conditions is a major challenge. Scenarios are used as decision‐making aids for natural resource management at local to global scales. Scenarios are underutilised by conservationists at a local level, where they can be highly effective for anticipating change.2. People’s values and attitudes are crucial in determining the future, yet they are rarely placed at the centre of scenario exercises. Novel methods have been developed to fully integrate people’s worldviews into scenario planning. The ethnographic futures framework focuses on how changes occur through human agency and how they will be felt by society in the future. The three horizons approach considers how different ideas and paradigms become more, or less, dominant in society over time.3. Natural England (NE), the statutory adviser to the UK Government on the natural environment in England, carried out a scenario planning process using these novel approaches. The scenarios consider a wide range of global and local factors and investigate their impact upon the natural environment in England, to 2060.4. A set of four contrasting scenarios was produced. Despite their differences, nature was always highly valued in some form; ultimately, the state of the natural environment was determined not by natural forces but by societal choice.5.
Synthesis and applications. Scenario planning allows the development of key visions for the future. These can be used to establish, and influence, the direction of future trends and their impacts on the natural environment, particularly in the context of a shifting basis for conservation policy that seeks to enhance ecological resilience. The scenarios are being used within NE to help local communities shape the future of their natural environment; this process can be utilised by governments or environmental agencies elsewhere. This study demonstrates that across a range of scenarios the future state of the natural environment is very much a matter of societal choice. Decision‐making frameworks for environmental conservation must take proper account of ecological knowledge, societal values, foresight and complexity.
Risk of contact between endangered African wild dogsLycaon pictusand domestic dogs: opportunities for pathogen transmission
Authors: Woodroffe Rosie , Donnelly Christl A. 
Published: September 2011

Summary1. Infectious diseases seriously threaten the populations of many endangered mammals, including African wild dogsLycaon pictus. Extinction risks may be particularly high where the endangered host lives alongside a more abundant host species which can maintain infection with virulent pathogens. Domestic dogsCanis familiarisare often assumed to act as such ‘reservoir hosts’ for pathogens threatening wild dogs.2. We present the first empirical study of contact within and between populations of sympatric wild dogs and domestic dogs. We studied the densities and movement patterns of both species in a Kenyan rangeland, using Global Positioning System‐collars and conventional radiotelemetry.3. Wild dogs lived at low population densities, and direct encounters between packs were rare. In contrast, domestic dogs lived at higher densities and encountered one another more frequently. These differences suggest that directly transmitted virulent pathogens would be more likely to persist within populations of domestic dogs than within wild dog populations. However, wild dog populations alone might maintain pathogens that are indirectly transmitted through vectors or environmental persistence.4. The risk of contact between the two host species was limited by their behaviour: domestic dogs were associated with human settlements, which wild dogs avoided. Clustering of settlements, reflecting grazing traditions of local pastoralists, accentuated these patterns.5. We predict that, in this landscape, spillover of directly transmitted pathogens from domestic dogs to wild dogs might be infrequent and rarely followed by onward transmission to other wild dog packs. This may explain the recent growth of the local wild dog population despite sporadic cases of rabies.6. Synthesis and applications. In this study area, the behaviour of wild and domestic dogs, combined with local land use practices, appeared to limit interspecific disease transmission and hence promote the recovery of the African wild dog population. However, different patterns may occur elsewhere. Moreover, land use changes like those occurring in other African rangelands would undermine such conservation benefits.
How selective sweeps in domestic animals provide new insight into biological mechanisms
Authors: Andersson L. 
Published: September 2011

Abstract.  Andersson L (Uppsala University, Uppsala; and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala; Sweden). How selective sweeps in domestic animals provide new insight into biological mechanisms (Review). J Intern Med 2012; 271: 1–14.Genetic studies of domestic animals are of general interest because there is more phenotypic diversity to explore in these species than in any experimental organism. Some mutations with favourable phenotypic effects have been highly enriched and gone through selective sweeps during the process of domestication and selective breeding. Three such selective sweeps are described in this review. All three mutations are intronic and constitute cis‐acting regulatory mutations. Two of the mutations constitute structural changes (one duplication and one copy number expansion). These examples illustrate a general trend that noncoding mutations and structural changes have both contributed significantly to the evolution of phenotypic diversity in domestic animals. How the molecular characterization of trait loci in domestic animals can provide new basic knowledge of relevance for human medicine is discussed.
Optical clearing improves the imaging depth and signal‐to‐noise ratio for digital analysis and three‐dimensional projection of the human enteric nervous system
Authors: Liu Y.‐A. , Chen Y. , Chiang A.‐S. , Peng S.‐J. , Pasricha P. J. , Tang S.‐C. 
Published: September 2011

AbstractBackground  Due to the dispersed nature of neurites and fibers, the microtome‐based 2‐dimensional histology provides only a limited perspective of the enteric nervous system. To visualize the enteric plexus, we applied optical clearing to avoid scattering in the human ileum to facilitate photon penetration for 3‐dimensional (3‐D) microscopy of the neural tissue.Methods  Human ileal specimens were derived by trimming the donor bowel due to its excess length during the clinical trial of small intestinal transplantation. The pan‐neuronal marker PGP9.5 was used as the immunostaining target to reveal the enteric plexuses. The labeled tissues were immersed in the optical‐clearing solution prior to deep‐tissue confocal microscopy. The serial sections were digitally analyzed and processed by reconstruction algorithms for 3‐D visualization.Key Results  Optical clearing of the ileal specimen led to less fluorescence signal decay along the focal path in the tissue and a higher signal‐to‐noise ratio of the confocal micrographs in comparison with the untreated saline control. Taking advantage of the high signal‐to‐noise ratio images, we applied software‐based signal analysis to identify the presence of the nerve fibers and quantify the signal peaks. The image stacks derived from the serial anatomic micrographs created panoramic views of the gut wall innervations with their associated microstructures.Conclusions & Inferences  We provide an optical approach to improve the imaging depth in 3‐D neurohistology of the human ileum. This methodology has significant promise in facilitating our understanding of the enteric nervous system in health and disease.
Overexpression of constitutively active Arabidopsis RabG3b promotes xylem development in transgenic poplars
Authors: KWON SOON IL , CHO HONG JOO , LEE JAE‐SOON , JIN HYUNJUNG , SHIN SOO‐JEONG , KWON MI , NOH EUN WOON , PARK OHKMAE K. 
Published: September 2011

ABSTRACTAn Arabidopsis small GTPase, RabG3b, was previously characterized as a component of autophagy and as a positive regulator for xylem development in Arabidopsis. In this work, we assessed whether RabG3b modulates xylem‐associated traits in poplar in a similar way as in Arabidopsis. We generated transgenic poplars (Populus alba × Populus tremula var. glandulosa) overexpressing a constitutively active form of RabG3b (RabG3bCA) and performed a range of morphological, histochemical and molecular analyses to examine xylogenesis. RabG3bCA transgenic poplars showed increased stem growth due to enhanced xylem development. Autophagic structures were observed in differentiating xyelm cells undergoing programmed cell death (PCD) in wild‐type poplar, and were more abundant in RabG3bCA transgenic poplar plants and cultured cells. Xylogenic activation was also accompanied by the expression of secondary wall‐, PCD‐ and autophagy‐related genes. Collectively, our results suggest that Arabidopsis RabG3b functions to regulate xylem growth through the activation of autophagy during wood formation in Populus, as does the same in Arabidopsis.