bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Institutional view of corporate social responsibility in the Iranian context
Authors: Ghazinoori Amir , Sandhu Manjit Singh , Sarker Ashutosh 
Published: March 2024

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine how formal and informal institutions play a role in the Iranian context in shaping corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies and practices.Design/methodology/approachUsing a multiple case-study approach combining comparative and cross-sectional methods with semi-structured interviews, primary data was collected from eight corporations that actively participated in CSR activities in Iran. A microanalysis approach was used to examine the meanings and dynamics in the data. Through thematic analysis and pattern-matching techniques, the authors separately examined the roles of formal and informal institutions. Cross-case analysis was used to highlight the cases’ similarities and differences.FindingsThis study demonstrates that both formal and informal institutional structures exist in Iran and that both types influence CSR. This study also shows that informal institutions (such as personal values, culture, religion, traditions, charity and philanthropy) play a more explicit role than formal institutions (such as legal regulations and laws) in shaping CSR adoption policies and practices. The results indicate that, among institutions linked to CSR, formal and informal institutions are complementary and potentiate each other in Iran. Nevertheless, compared to formal ones, informal institutions play a more prominent role in shaping CSR policies and practices.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors recognize that, although the eight corporations are large, and although they interviewed their key personnel, they do not claim that these findings are generalizable, owing to the qualitative nature of the study and the small number of selected corporations.Originality/valueThis study makes relevant theoretical and empirical contributions. First, it contributes to the growing body of CSR literature that highlights the necessity of linking informal and formal institutions. Although the CSR literature lacks research on informal institutions in developing economies, researchers have yet to push forward and explore how the CSR adoption process works in developing economies that have influential informal institutions.
A systematic review of evidence capturing efficacy of community and school-based approaches to knife crime intervention and prevention programs
Authors: Wilkinson Dean , Chopra Isha , Badger Sophie 
Published: March 2024

Purpose
Knife crime and serious violent crime (SVC) among youth has been growing at an alarming rate in the UK (Harding and Allen, 2021). Community and school-based intervention and prevention services to tackle knife crime are being developed with some evaluation; however, these are independent and of varied quality and rigour. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to record the approaches being developed and synthesise existing evidence of the impact and effectiveness of programmes to reduce knife crime. In addition, the complex factors contributing to knife crime and SVC are discussed.

Design/methodology/approach
A systematic approach was used to conduct this knife crime intervention evidence review using two search engines and four databases. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to ensure focus and relevance. The results of searches and decisions by the research team were recorded at each stage using Preferred Reporting Items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA).

Findings
Some evidence underpins the development of services to reduce knife crime. Much of the evidence comes from government funded project reports, intervention and prevention services reports, with few studies evaluating the efficacy of intervention programmes at present. Some studies that measured immediate impact in line with the programme’s aims were found and demonstrated positive results.

Originality/value
This systematic review specifically synthesised the evidence and data derived from knife crime and weapon carrying interventions and preventions, integrating both grey and published literature, with a novel discussion that highlights the importance of outcome evaluations and issues with measuring the success of individual level interventions and their contributions to the overall reduction of violence.
Unleashing the power of manufacturing flexibility: enhancing performance in Bangladesh's ready-made garment industry
Authors: Moin Chowdhury Jony , Iqbal Mohammad , Abdul Malek A.B.M. , Khan Mohammad Muhshin Aziz , Haque Rezwanul 
Published: March 2024

PurposeThis research aims to investigate how manufacturing flexibility can address the challenges of an ever-changing and unpredictable business environment in Bangladesh’s labor-intensive ready-made garment (RMG) industry, which is underserved and situated in a developing country.Design/methodology/approachUsing Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling, this study empirically evaluated the relationships between manufacturing flexibility, environmental uncertainty and firm performance. The analysis utilized 320 survey responses from potential RMG experts, representing 95 organizations.FindingsThe study achieved a decision-making model for implementing manufacturing flexibility in the RMG industry of Bangladesh with acceptable model fit criterion. The research pinpointed that workforce flexibility plays the maximum mediating among different types of manufacturing in coping with demand and supply uncertainty in the RMG sector.Research limitations/implicationsThe study made valuable contributions to theoretical and practical knowledge in the context of manufacturing flexibility in Bangladesh’s RMG and other underserved labor-intensive sectors in developing economies. It suggests that managers should shift from defensive and risky business strategies to more aggressive and proactive approaches by utilizing workforce flexibility resources adaptively to enhance manufacturing capabilities and align with dynamic market demand. Additionally, the study offers recommendations for future research to build upon its findings.Originality/valueThis study is unique in its approach because it presents a decision model for implementing manufacturing flexibility in a labor-intensive industry in a developing economy, specifically the RMG industry in Bangladesh, whereas previous research has primarily focused on high-tech industries in developed economies.
(South) African perspectives on the prevention, monitoring and combating of hate victimisation
Authors: Nel Juan A. , Venter Zindi 
Published: March 2024

Purpose
This paper aims to provide an overview of South African perspectives on preventing, monitoring and combating hate victimisation, towards informing international understandings.

Design/methodology/approach
Using a general review approach, this paper provides a historical examination of measures proposed by the South African Government and civil society since 1994, to prevent, monitor and combat hate crime, hate speech and intentional unfair discrimination.

Findings
Regardless of a constitutional commitment to social inclusion, diversity and minority rights, significant progress remains lacking after almost three decades of related advocacy, lobbying and limited government intervention. Findings of the South African Hate Crimes Working Group (HCWG) longitudinal Monitoring Project emphasise the need for decisive legal responses to hate victimisation.

Social implications
A Bill, recognising hate crime and hate speech as distinct criminal offences, has been in development for almost 15 years and will soon serve before Parliament. Enactment of this legislation will be ground-breaking in Africa.

Originality/value
This paper contributes to the field of hate studies by providing an overview of the journey towards current conceptual understandings of hate in (South) Africa. It sets the stage for evaluating the potential of the redesigned HCWG monitoring tool, which holds promise for early identification and intervention in hate hotspots and targeted sectors. This instrument can establish trends not only in South Africa but also across the African continent.
Preserving large blocks of primary forest is critical to conserve forest‐dependent bird species in the Amazon
Authors: Marcacci Gabriel 
Published: March 2024

AbstractResearch Highlight: Birch, B. D. J., Mills, S. C., Socolar, J. B., Martínez‐Revelo, D. E., Haugaasen, T., & Edwards, D. P. (2024). Land sparing outperforms land sharing for Amazonian bird communities regardless of surrounding landscape context. Journal of Applied Ecology, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365‐2664.14596.Tropical forests are globally threatened by agricultural activities, including cattle farming. The land sharing versus land sparing debate has often been used as a means of addressing the trade‐off between agricultural production and biodiversity conservation, without finding a consensus within the scientific community. Moving forward, recent studies suggest combining both land allocation strategies, where wildlife‐friendly habitats within farmlands could allow movements of species within the agricultural matrix and connect natural habitats such as forest blocks, though this has rarely been demonstrated with empirical studies. In their study, Birch et al. tested how wildlife‐friendly habitats within and around cattle pastures could rescue the negative effects of converting forest to farmland on Amazon bird communities. To do so, they modelled bird species occupancies and simulated different land sharing versus land sparing scenarios with varying amount of landscape‐scale wildlife‐friendly habitat and levels of production. They found that the land sparing strategy outperformed land sharing in all scenarios, with limited benefits of landscape‐scale wildlife‐friendly habitat. This result was mostly driven by forest‐dependent species that cannot persist in farmlands. As these species are highly sensitive, preserving large blocks of primary forest is critical for their conservation.
Long‐run impacts of the conflict in Ukraine on grain imports and prices in Africa
Authors: Balma Lacina , Heidland Tobias , Jävervall Sebastian , Mahlkow Hendrik , Mukasa Adamon N. , Woldemichael Andinet 
Published: March 2024

AbstractRussia's invasion of Ukraine has threatened global grain supplies as it reduces production and exports while increasing trade costs. While the overall share of Africa's trade with Ukraine and Russia is small, the concentration of imports in products such as wheat, other grains, and fertilizer is critical to food security. This paper investigates the long‐term impacts of the conflict on grain imports and prices in Africa. We use a long‐run general equilibrium trade model to study three scenarios that may evolve as a consequence of the conflict: (1) a heavily reduced Ukrainian production of wheat and other grains; (2) rising trade costs with Ukraine and Russia due to disrupted trade routes in the Black Sea and the sanctions against trading with Russia; and (3) an outright ban on Russian grain export. The model simulations show that the conflict severely affects grain imports, raising local prices for wheat and other grains, with especially strong effects in high import‐dependent countries. That creates risks for food security in some African countries.
Social Comparison on Multiple Tasks: Sacrificing Overall Performance for Local Excellence?
Authors: KOHLER MAXIMILIAN , MAHLENDORF MATTHIAS D. , SEITER MISCHA , VOGELSANG TIMO 
Published: March 2024

ABSTRACTThis field experiment investigates how different levels of aggregation in relative performance information (RPI) impact employee performance in environments with multiple tasks. We randomly assign store employees of a retail chain to three groups: RPI on overall performance (control group), RPI on separate tasks, and RPI on both overall performance and separate tasks. We do not find evidence that providing separate task RPI instead of overall RPI affects performance or effort allocation. However, providing RPI on both overall performance and separate tasks seems to reduce performance, especially in the low‐return task. This suggests that detailed RPI directs employees’ attention to the smaller benefits of low‐return tasks. We further find that only 30.5% of the employees accessed their performance reports, highlighting a distinction between providing RPI in the field and the laboratory. This study is based on a registered report accepted by the Journal of Accounting Research.
Proteomic examination of polyester‐polyurethane degradation by Streptomyces sp. PU10: Diverting polyurethane intermediates to secondary metabolite production
Authors: Pantelic Brana , Siaperas Romanos , Budin Clémence , de Boer Tjalf , Topakas Evangelos , Nikodinovic‐Runic Jasmina 
Published: March 2024

AbstractGlobal plastic waste accumulation has become omnipresent in public discourse and the focus of scientific research. Ranking as the sixth most produced polymer globally, polyurethanes (PU) significantly contribute to plastic waste and environmental pollution due to the toxicity of their building blocks, such as diisocyanates. In this study, the effects of PU on soil microbial communities over 18 months were monitored revealing that it had marginal effects on microbial diversity. However, Streptomyces sp. PU10, isolated from this PU‐contaminated soil, proved exceptional in the degradation of a soluble polyester‐PU (Impranil) across a range of temperatures with over 96% degradation of 10 g/L in 48 h. Proteins involved in PU degradation and metabolic changes occurring in this strain with Impranil as the sole carbon source were further investigated employing quantitative proteomics. The proposed degradation mechanism implicated the action of three enzymes: a polyester‐degrading esterase, a urethane bond‐degrading amidase and an oxidoreductase. Furthermore, proteome data revealed that PU degradation intermediates were incorporated into Streptomyces sp. PU10 metabolism via the fatty acid degradation pathway and subsequently channelled to polyketide biosynthesis. Most notably, the production of the tri‐pyrrole undecylprodigiosin was confirmed paving the way for establishing PU upcycling strategies to bioactive metabolites using Streptomyces strains.
SWAT‐GL: A new glacier routine for the hydrological model SWAT
Authors: Schaffhauser Timo , Tuo Ye , Hofmeister Florentin , Chiogna Gabriele , Huang Jingshui , Merk Fabian , Disse Markus 
Published: March 2024

AbstractThe hydrological model Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is widely used in water resources management worldwide. It is also used to simulate catchment hydrology in high‐mountainous regions where glaciers play an important role. However, SWAT considers glaciers in a simplistic way. Although some efforts were done to overcome this limitation, there is no official version available that considers glaciers adequately. This strongly impairs its applicability in glacierized catchments. In this technical note, we propose a novel version of the traditional SWAT, called SWAT‐GL, which introduces (1) a mass balance module and (2) a glacier evolution routine to represent dynamic glacier changes. Mass balance calculations are based on a conceptual degree‐day approach, similar to the snow routine implemented in SWAT. Glacier evolution is realized using the delta‐h (∆h) parameterization, which requires a minimum of data and is thus suitable in data‐scarce regions. The approach allows users to simulate spatially distributed glacier changes. Annual mass balance changes are translated to distributed ice thickness changes depending on the glacier elevation. We demonstrate how SWAT‐GL is technically integrated into SWAT and how glaciers are merged with the existing spatial units. Model code and test data are freely accessible to promote further model development efforts and a wide application. Ultimately, SWAT‐GL aims to make SWAT easily applicable in glacierized catchments without the need of additional tools.
Evaluation of surface water supply impacts from permit exemptions: A comparison with climate change and demand growth
Authors: Sangha Laljeet , Hildebrand Daniel , Scott Durelle , Shortridge Julie 
Published: March 2024

AbstractMany states in the Eastern U.S. have limited water withdrawal regulations, posing significant risks to water supply management during periods of low flows. While these states require water withdrawal permits, exemptions for grandfathered withdrawals that allow unregulated access to surface water are common. Such permit exemptions present a challenge to water supply management, as full utilization of allowable withdrawals by permit‐exempt users could pose risks to maintaining adequate water supplies for current and projected demand. This study used reported permit exemption data in Virginia to understand the extent, volume, and potential impact of permit‐exempt withdrawals on 30‐ and 90‐day low flows. The permit‐exempt withdrawal values used in this study were obtained from Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. Maximum permit‐exempt withdrawal volumes were significantly higher than projected future demands in permitted users. The impacts of these withdrawals on drought flows were compared with the impacts presented by climate change and demand growth. Widespread reduction in flows was observed with the “dry” future climate change scenario, while impacts were more localized in the exempt users and the demand growth scenarios. The impacts of exempt users exceeded the impact of climate change and demand growth scenarios in many regions during low‐flow periods. Therefore, more comprehensive water planning, policy and research is needed to address the impact of permit exemptions.
High‐sensitive troponinT, interleukin‐8, and interleukin‐6 link with post‐surgery risk in infant heart surgery
Authors: Thorlacius Elin M. , Keski‐Nisula Juho , Vistnes Maria , Ojala Tiina , Molin Mattias , Synnergren Mats , Romlin Birgitta S. , Ricksten Sven‐Erik , Wåhlander Håkan , Castellheim Albert Gyllencreutz 
Published: March 2024

AbstractBackgroundThis study focuses on biomarkers in infants after open heart surgery, and examines the association of high‐sensitive troponin T (hs‐cTnT), interleukin‐6 (IL‐6), and interleukin‐8 (IL‐8) with postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI), ventilatory support time and need of vasoactive drugs.MethodsSecondary exploratory study from a double‐blinded clinical randomized trial (Mile‐1) on 70 infants undergoing open heart surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). In this sub‐study, the entire study population was examined without considering the study drugs. The biomarkers' peak concentration (highest concentration at 2 or 6 h post‐CPB) were used for statistical analyses.ResultsPeak IL‐8, hs‐cTnT, and IL‐6 occurred at 2 h post‐CPB for 96%, 79%, and 63% of the patients, respectively. The odds ratio of developing AKI2‐3 for IL‐6 > 293 pg/mL was 23.4 (95% CI 5.3;104.0), for IL‐8 > 100 pg/mL it was 11.5 (3.0;44.2), and for hs‐cTnT >5597 pg/mL it was 6.1 (1.5; 24.5). In more than two third of the patients with the highest peak concentrations of IL‐8, IL‐6, and hs‐cTnT, there was a need for ventilatory support for >24 h and use of vasoactive drugs at 24 h post‐CPB, while in less than one third of the patients with the lowest peak concentrations of IL‐8 and hs‐cTnT such requirements were observed.ConclusionsThe peak biomarker concentrations and CPB‐time strongly predicted AKI2‐3, with IL‐6 and IL‐8 emerging as strongest predictors. Furthermore, our findings suggest that measuring hs‐cTnT and IL‐8 just 2 h post‐CPB‐weaning may assist in identifying infants suitable for early extubation and highlight those at risk of prolonged ventilation.
Peripheral hypertrophic subepithelial corneal opacification – Role of tear secretion, medication and systemic diseases
Authors: Riedl Jana C. , Misirkhanova Aminat , Wasielica‐Poslednik Joanna , Schuster Alexander K. , Schmidtmann Irene , Beutel Manfred E. , Pfeiffer Norbert , Gericke Adrian 
Published: March 2024

AbstractBackgroundPeripheral hypertrophic subepithelial corneal opacification (PHSCO) is a corneal disease that may severely affect vision. The major goal of this study was to test the hypothesis that tear secretion, medication and systemic diseases are associated with PHSCO.MethodsThis is a retrospective, case–control study conducted at the Department of Ophthalmology, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. We analysed medical records of patients diagnosed with PHSCO. Sex, age, Schirmer's test II, general medication and medical history were assessed and compared to an age‐ and sex‐matched control group from the Gutenberg Health Study (GHS).ResultsOne hundred ninety‐five eyes of 112 patients with PHSCO were included. Eighty‐eight patients were female with a mean age of 55.3 ± 14.7 years (23–89 years) and 24 patients were male with a mean age of 59.3 ± 12.6 years (38–84 years). In 83 patients (74.1%) both eyes were involved. The Schirmer's test II was significantly reduced in patients with PHSCO compared to the GHS control group (p < 0.001). Patients with PHSCO were more frequently administered artificial tears and steroid eye drops (p < 0.001) and were more hyperopic than healthy controls (p = 0.01). Systemic diseases or medication did not differ markedly between PHSCO and healthy controls.ConclusionReduced tear secretion and more frequent use of artificial tears in patients with PHSCO suggest a link between PHSCO and dry eye disease. The results of the study do not support our hypothesis that PHSCO is associated with systemic diseases. Interestingly, patients with PHSCO were less frequently on β‐blockers than control subjects.
Functional gastrointestinal disorders, quality of life, and behaviour in adolescents with history of infant colic
Authors: Zeevenhooven Judith , Zeevenhooven Lucas , Biesbroek Angela , Schappin Renske , Vlieger Arine M. , van Sleuwen Bregje E. , L'Hoir Monique P. , Benninga Marc A. 
Published: March 2024

AbstractAimTo assess the prevalence of functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs), health‐related quality of life (HRQOL), and behavioural problems in a cohort of adolescents with a history of infant colic (IC), as defined by Wessel's criteria.Methods388 adolescents, aged 15–18 years, who participated in a randomised controlled trial for infants with colic, were invited for our observational follow‐up study. Prevalence of FGIDs was assessed with the Rome IV Questionnaire on Paediatric Gastrointestinal Disorders (RIV‐QPGD), HRQOL through self‐report of the Paediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL), and behavioural problems through parent‐report of the child behaviour checklist (CBCL). Multivariable models were used to compare prevalence rates of FGIDs and HRQOL scores.Results190 (49%) adolescents with a history of IC (cases) and 381 controls were included (median age 17.0 [IQR 16.0–17.0] and 16.0 [15.0–17.0] years, respectively). Cases had a significantly higher risk for postprandial distress syndrome compared to controls (aOR 2.49 (95%CI 1.18–5.25), p = 0.002). After multivariable regression, total, physical and school HRQOL scores were significantly lower in cases compared to controls (p = 0.003, 0.001, and 0.009).ConclusionAdolescents with a history of IC demonstrate higher prevalence rates of postprandial distress syndrome compared to controls. However, conclusions should be made with caution due to attrition and information bias.