bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Perceptions of “going gradeless” a case study of a master’s programme in the education field
Authors: Ow Yong Xinzi 
Published: February 2025

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to explore the perceived concept of “going gradeless” among education master’s students and academics within a Hong Kong university. This study aims to explore differing perspectives on “going gradeless” and identify the key potential issues associated with its implementation in higher education.Design/methodology/approachThe research employed a qualitative method using purposive sampling to select participants for semi-structured focus interviews, and the sample consisted of nine education master’s students and two academics. The data collected from these interviews were systematically analyzed using NVivo software, and the codes were developed into themes within the participants' perceptions of “going gradeless.”FindingsThe findings reveal that students and academics view going gradeless differently. Students have mixed feelings about a gradeless system. Most recognize the problems associated with an overemphasis on grades and the potential benefits of going gradeless, and they also express concerns about the personal advantages of recognized credentials, differentiation from peers and resistance to implementation. Conversely, academics call for a change in grading policy, citing the negative impact of grade-driven approaches on learning. However, they also raise concerns about institutional and cultural factors that could pose challenges to a gradeless system.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the underexplored area of gradeless learning in higher education, particularly within Confucian societies. By revealing differing perspectives between students and academics, offering critical considerations for policymakers and educators seeking to reform grading practices and enhance learning outcomes.
Exploring operational excellence in North African manufacturing enterprises: uncovering best practices, success and failure factors
Authors: Cherrafi Anass , Echefaj Khadija , Charkaoui Abdelkabir , Antony Jiju , Shokri Alireza 
Published: February 2025

Purpose
Operationnal excellence has emerged as a critical factor for organisations competitiveness. Companies in developing countries are striving to elevate their operational performance to new heights. This study aims to explore the effective best practices, drivers and challenges to operational excellence in North African business.

Design/methodology/approach
To address the objectives of this study, a qualitative approach is adopted. A total of 13 experienced professionals holding leads initiatives within North African enterprises are surveyed. Following, content analysis method is employed to extract, categorise and analyse the knowledge from the interviews.

Findings
The findings indicate that the implemented best practices include process optimisation, performance measurement, standardisation, customer-centric approach, lean manufacturing and total quality management. For a successful adoption, the results shed light on the importance of leadership commitment, upskilling, digitalisation and employee’s empowerment. However, the implementation faces several challenges incorporating unsustainable engagement, resistance to change, disconnected practices, insufficient investment, deficient improvement assessment and limited access to digitalisation.

Originality/value
This study contributes to exploring the best practices, enablers and barriers to successful implementation of operational excellence in emerging economies. Its findings can be used by scholars and decision-makers to advance knowledge around operational excellence, broaden the existing strategies to tailor specific contexts and promote operational performance.
Exploring the predictors of public trust in police services in Somalia
Authors: Abdi Ahmed-Nor Mohamed , Jamal Ismail Mohamed , Abdul Rahman Nurulhasanah 
Published: February 2025

PurposeThis study examined public perceptions of law enforcement agencies in Mogadishu, Somalia. Specifically, the researchers examined the predictors of public trust in the police in Somali post-conflict contexts.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through an online cross-sectional survey of 425 Mogadishu residents. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to analyze the data and test the hypothesized relationship.FindingsThe results revealed that perceived police accountability, performance and professionalism significantly and positively influence public trust in the Somali police force.Practical implicationsThis study provides practical recommendations for Somalia’s policymakers and law enforcement agencies. It emphasizes the importance of implementing stronger accountability systems, programs to enhance performance and training in professional conduct as key approaches to restoring and maintaining public confidence in the police force. These initiatives are crucial for preserving social stability and ensuring public safety in a society recovering from conflicts.Originality/valueThis study fills a significant gap in the literature by providing a comprehensive framework that combines performance and social learning theories to explore public trust in the police within a post-conflict context. The findings contribute valuable knowledge on the factors that can enhance public trust in law enforcement in countries recovering from conflict, particularly Somalia.
Preparation and characterization of low dielectric and high toughness epoxy resin based on branched structure
Authors: Yang Zhou , Chi Minghe , Zhang Xiaorui , Shi Jiahao , Sun Xue , Zhang Xiaoman , Chen Qingguo 
Published: February 2025

Purpose
Epoxy resin (EP) is a thermosetting resin commonly characterized by its inherent brittleness, which limits its widespread application. To overcome this limitation, a novel flexible chain-blocking hyperbranched polyester (HBP) was conceptualized and synthesized to enhance the toughness and dielectric properties of EP.

Design/methodology/approach
Using P-toluene sulfonic acid (p-TSA) as the catalyst and Bis(hydroxymethyl)propionic acid (DMPA) as the branching unit with pentaerythritol (PER) as the core, an experimental synthesis was conducted. Subsequently, n-hexanoic acid was introduced separately to produce hyperbranched polyester with n-hexanoic acid capped structures. Microstructural, mechanical, insulating and dielectric analyses of the composite were performed to determine the optimal proportion of HBP.

Findings
Recent research has demonstrated that the flexible segments within hyperbranched polyester create an interpenetrating network structure with the molecular chains of epoxy resin, thereby effectively augmenting the toughness of the epoxy resin. Additionally, HBP has reduced the ε and tgδ values of the epoxy-anhydride cured product by decreasing the number of polar groups per unit volume of EP through the introduction of free volumes.

Originality/value
Currently, HBP serves as an innovative toughening strategy and modifier for epoxy resin. The toughening mechanism involves the generation of free volume by HBP, providing space for EP molecules to maneuver under load. Additionally, the free volume contributes to a reduction in the dielectric constant of EP by diminishing the polarizable group content. Simultaneously, the incorporation of HBP features flexible chains grafted onto the epoxy resin.
Knowledge management and experience as moderators in the education-human capital-entrepreneur performance relationship: a moderated-mediation analysis
Authors: Singh Anurag , Parayitam Satyanarayana 
Published: February 2025

Purpose
This study aims to unfold the education–performance relationship, especially concerning the entrepreneurs from an emerging economy, India. A double-layered complex model was developed showing the moderation of knowledge management (KM) and experience in education and performance relationship mediated through human skills.

Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected using cluster sampling from 450 entrepreneurs from India. After checking the survey instrument’s measurement properties with LISREL, Hayes’s PROCESS macros were used to analyze the results.

Findings
The results indicate that education does not predict entrepreneur’s performance but predicts human skills, which in turn positively predicts performance. Result also shows that KM (first moderator) and experience (second moderator) significantly influenced the human skills, performance and education–performance relationship.

Originality/value
The multiple moderated-moderation effects of KM and experience are the unique work not contributed earlier. The originality of this research is based on the relationship study between human skills in influencing performance through the moderation of KM (first moderator) and experience (second moderator).
Customer satisfaction through online reviews analysis – a case study of Slovak spas
Authors: Derco Jan , Tometzová Dana 
Published: February 2025

PurposeThe aim of the paper is to process clients’ online reviews of 20 spa locations in the Slovak Republic in the form of a case study. The purpose is to identify and specify the shortcomings of Slovak spa resorts as well as the needs and preferences of their clientele.Design/methodology/approachTo obtain data, Google text reviews were scraped using the Instant Data Scraper. The text mining approach was used for the analysis of 5,670 reviews (using the RapidMiner Studio and Atlas.ti tools).FindingsThe performed sentiment analysis of the reviews has determined that 4,807 of the reviews were positive, 476 were neutral and 387 were of negative sentiment. The subsequently processed word list states the most frequently mentioned nouns and adjectives. Detailed opinion mining identifies the areas/phrases with the most frequent occurrence of the negative sentiment in their reviews.Originality/valueThe stated results are important from the perspective of service quality management in order to improve the satisfaction of spa customers. Sentiment analysis of Google Maps reviews for the target clientele remains unexplored and represents a novel area of study.
‘I prefer to be alone than to be among them’: In‐school experiences of learners with disabilities and their caregivers in inclusive schools in Ghana
Authors: Gyimah Ebenezer Mensah , Dassah Ebenezer , Opoku Maxwell Peprah , Nketsia William , Mensah Philip Atta 
Published: February 2025

AbstractInclusive education affords all learners, particularly learners with disabilities, access to equitable educational services. Despite the widespread recognition and extensive scholarly attention of the 2015 Inclusive Education Policy, learners with disabilities in Ghana continue to struggle to fully participate in inclusive schools. Guided by provisions in the Disability Act of Ghana, Act 715 of 2006—a key legal framework protecting the rights of people with disabilities—this study seeks to evaluate the experiences of learners with disabilities and their families in navigating and accessing inclusive education. Employing the critical disability theory lens, the study adopted a qualitative descriptive design and purposively recruited learners with physical disabilities and visual impairments (n = 25) and their families (n = 20). Content analysis was subsequently applied to the data. Despite legal provisions for inclusive education, participants experienced financial barriers, inadequate inclusive education resources, difficulties with the built environment and labelling. This study calls for a multisectoral approach, including policy reforms, improved resource allocation, infrastructural investments and expedited public education, aimed towards promoting access to inclusive education for learners with disabilities.
HOW DATA CENTERS HAVE COME TO MATTER: Governing the Spatial and Environmental Footprint of the ‘Digital Gateway to Europe’
Authors: Monstadt Jochen , Saltzman Katherine 
Published: February 2025

AbstractData centers, the material backbone of smart cities, power the digital economy and advanced digital services. Metaphors of ‘the cloud’ and ‘cloud computing’ obscure the massive computing and storage infrastructures, the resource flows and the land uses they mediate. To date, smart city research and policies have been concerned less with the materiality of enabling data infrastructures than with the material effects of increased datafication and digitalization of urban services. Only recently has urban data infrastructures’ rapidly expanding spatial and environmental footprint pushed their materialities to the forefront of public and academic controversies. Building on recent research on cloud geographies and ecologies, this article traces the politicization and emerging regulation around data centers in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, the self‐proclaimed ‘digital gateway to Europe’. Here, after years of unconditional political support and regulatory passivity, a cascade of policy reforms has been introduced to confine data center growth. Nevertheless, severe urban governance challenges remain in mitigating data centers’ massive electricity, resource and land demands, and in exploiting their residual heat. We thus advocate broader dialogue across the affected policy fields and broader publics about which political objectives merit prioritizing given the constraints of available electricity and land.
Maternal Calcium Intake at 36 Weeks' Gestation and Pre‐Eclampsia Risk—A Cohort Study
Authors: Arechvo Anastasija , Syngelaki Argyro , Magee Laura A. , Moore Sophie E. , Doel Andrew , Wright Alan , Nicolaides Kypros H. , von Dadelszen Peter 
Published: February 2025

ABSTRACTObjectiveThe objective of this study is to examine the association between dietary calcium intake (Ca) and pre‐eclampsia (PE).DesignCohort study.SettingInner‐city hospital.PopulationA total of 2838 women with singleton pregnancies at 35+0–36+6 weeks' gestation, including 96 (3.4%) who subsequently developed PE.MethodsOnline 24‐h dietary recall questionnaire was used to measure Ca intake. In the low (< 700 mg/d) vs. adequate (≥ 700 mg/d) Ca intake groups, we compared the prevalence of PE‐associated maternal risk factors and the incidence of PE. In multivariate regression, we examined the low Ca intake and PE relationship, adjusted for established PE risk factors (including blood pressure and angiogenic biomarkers) and any additional factors associated with low Ca intake specifically.Main Outcome MeasurePE.ResultsOverall, 405 (14.3%) women had low Ca intake. Low (vs. adequate) Ca intake was associated with a higher incidence of PE (6.2% vs. 2.9%; odds ratio 2.2, 95% confidence interval 1.3–3.7), as well as more prevalent risk factors for PE, including Black ethnicity (34.1% vs. 11.8%), South Asian ethnicity (10.1% vs. 7.2%), high body mass index (29.8 vs. 28.3 kg/m2) and more deprived index of multiple deprivation (54.3% vs. 35.5%). In multivariate regression adjusting for other PE risk factors, low Ca intake was no longer associated with PE (OR 1.7, 95% CI 0.9–3.2).ConclusionsAlthough some contribution from low Ca to the development of PE cannot be ruled out, after accounting for maternal characteristics, medical history and deprivation, low Ca intake did not make an independent contribution to the development of PE in this population of mixed‐ethnicity women.
A novel complex of pectin‐crosslinked β‐cyclodextrin: Effectively reducing cholesterol content in hotpot beef tallow
Authors: Wang Yihan , Wang Kai , Xiang Xiaofeng , Zhang Shuming , Huang Jie , Tang Chunhong , Wang Qiang 
Published: February 2025

AbstractThe high cholesterol content of beef tallow is one of the potential risks affecting the nutritional value and safety of beef tallow hotpot. In this study, a novel pectin‐crosslinked β‐cyclodextrin (β‐CD) complex was successfully prepared by the cross‐linking method to reduce the cholesterol content in beef tallow. When 3% (by mass of beef tallow) of the pectin‐crosslinked β‐CD
complex was added, the removal rate of cholesterol in beef tallow reached 73.43%, which was significantly higher than that of the currently known materials, including β‐CD. Moreover, the indexes such as fatty acid composition, chromaticity, and aroma components of beef tallow before and after cholesterol removal were measured. The results showed that the fatty acid composition and chromaticity value of beef tallow treated with the pectin‐crosslinked β‐CD complex did not change significantly, but the contents of aromatic components, aldehydes, ketones, and alcohol flavor compounds in beef tallow increased significantly. Through characterization experiments, it was confirmed that compared with β‐CD, the pectin‐crosslinked β‐CD complex required a higher temperature to reach the maximum thermal decomposition rate, indicating that its structure had higher thermal stability and could effectively remove cholesterol under high‐temperature conditions. In addition, after the nematode toxicity experiment, there was still a survival rate of 97.97%, indicating that the pectin‐crosslinked β‐CD complex could effectively reduce the cholesterol content in beef tallow without toxicity. These results suggest that the pectin‐crosslinked β‐CD complex has great potential as an adsorbent for removing cholesterol from animal fats and oils in the food industry.
A heroin overdose laboratory model: How do escalating doses of diamorphine alter respiratory function in a diamorphine‐treated population?
Authors: Tas Basak , Kalk Nicola J. , Chesney Edward , van der Waal Rob , Boyd Alastair , Bell James , Kelleher Mike , Moxham John , Lawn Will , Jolley Caroline J. , Strang John 
Published: February 2025

AbstractBackground & AimGlobally, more than 100 000 people die annually from opioid overdose. Although strongly implicated in heroin overdose deaths, acute opioid‐induced respiratory depression is poorly understood, and few laboratory studies have been completed in human subjects. It is an area of undone science. Using a human laboratory overdose model, our research question was: what is the strength of the association between increasing dose of diamorphine and degree of respiratory depression in people prescribed injectable diamorphine for heroin use disorder?DesignSingle‐blind, Phase IV, non‐randomised, dose‐escalation clinical trial.SettingKing's Clinical Research Facility, London, UK.ParticipantsFour participants prescribed injectable diamorphine as treatment for heroin use disorder [all male, median (range) age 63 (59–72)].InterventionsThe following dosing schedule was implemented (as a % of participant's usual prescribed diamorphine dose): visit 1–100%; visit 2–110%; visit 3–120%; visit 4–100%. Usual dose: 97.5 mg (30 mg–200 mg).MeasurementsPhysiological measures included: pulse oximetry (SpO2%), end‐tidal CO2 (ETCO2%), transcutaneous CO2, respiratory rate and parasternal electromyography to measure neural respiratory drive index (NRDI). Recordings were made continuously from 3 mins pre‐dose to 60 mins post‐dose.FindingsRespiratory measures from baseline to post‐dose across all dose sessions had ranges of: 89.7%–99.5% SpO2%; 4.8%–7.7% ETCO2%; 5.2–13.4 breaths/minute respiratory rate; 51.2 min−1–165.9 min−1 NRDI across all participants. All diamorphine doses caused some reduction in respiratory function. There was no clear difference between diamorphine dose and the degree of respiratory depression, based on descriptive analyses.ConclusionsA dose‐escalation clinical trial of people prescribed injectable diamorphine for heroin addiction found that the degree of respiratory depression caused by diamorphine does not appear to be dose dependent; however, the changes seen at diamorphine doses to which participants were accustomed suggest that participants had only partial tolerance to the respiratory depressant effect of diamorphine.
Transosomes Contribute to the Inner Perivitelline Layer of the Quail (Coturnix japonica) Oocyte: An Ultrastructural and Immunohistochemical Study
Authors: Rodler Daniela , Driese‐Haydn Anna Teresa 
Published: February 2025

ABSTRACTThe oocytes of vertebrates possess an extracellular layer known as the zona pellucida in mammals and the inner perivitelline layer (IPL) in birds. The avian IPL, a thin matrix, is essential for protecting the oocyte and facilitating fertilisation, although it does not prevent polyspermy as in mammals. It forms during folliculogenesis and is composed primarily of glycoproteins (zona proteins ZP1–ZP4, ZPD and ZPAX), along with numerous other proteins. Through electron microscopy and immunohistochemistry, we hypothesise that in quails (Coturnix japonica), transosomes, cellular organelles that occur exclusively in the granulosa cells of birds and have hitherto unknown functions, are involved in the transport of the tight junction proteins occludin and claudin. These proteins, synthesised in the granulosa cells of quails, are transported through the follicle cells and incorporated into the growing IPL during follicle maturation.
The Safety Assessment of Continuation of Perioperative Antiplatelet Therapy in Elective Robotic Surgery for Colorectal Cancer: A Retrospective Study
Authors: Watanabe Toshifumi , Fujikawa Takahisa , Nagata Keiji , Tanaka Keita , Matsuoka Taisuke , Yamana Ippei , Kawamura Yuichiro 
Published: February 2025

ABSTRACTIntroductionRobotic surgery under condition of maintaining perioperative antiplatelet therapy (APT) is considered to have the risk of perioperative hemorrhagic events. We examined whether perioperative continuation of APT increased intraoperative blood loss and incidence of hemorrhagic complications in robot‐assisted colorectal resection.MethodsThe medical records of patients who underwent robotic surgical resection of colorectal cancer at our hospital between September 2020 and December 2023 were enrolled. Intraoperative blood loss, incidence of blood transfusion, and postoperative hemorrhagic complications were evaluated after dividing the study population into an APT group (patients receiving perioperative APT) and a non‐APT group.ResultsTwenty‐seven patients were included in the APT group and 65 patients were the non‐APT group. All patients in the APT group were continued aspirin monotherapy until the day before the surgery. There were more anticoagulated patients in the non‐APT group than in the APT‐group (27.7% vs. 7.4%, p = 0.0496). Median intraoperative blood loss in the APT and non‐APT group were 14 and 15 mL, respectively (p = 0.802). The incidence of intraoperative blood transfusion and postoperative hemorrhagic complication in the respective group were 0% and 4.6% (p = 0.553) and 0% and 1.5% (p = 1.00).ConclusionThe results of this study suggested that perioperative continuation of APT will be allowed in robot‐assisted colorectal resection in terms of safety.