bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Network as a business environment: experiences from software industry
Authors: Kulmala Harri I. , Uusi‐Rauva Erkki 
Published: July 2005

PurposeThe aim of the paper is to describe the differences between networked and non‐networked firms' methods intended to increase profitability, methods for intended growth, implemented and intended openness development, and experiences of networking.Design/methodology/approachThe research approach is empirical and descriptive. Data were gathered by mail survey from Finnish software producers.FindingsNetworked firms intended to improve profitability by boosting resource efficiency, while non‐networked firms concentrated on price increases. No difference occurred in firms' perceptions of their profitability. Networked firms intended to grow by mergers and acquisitions and by cooperation with partners. Non‐networked firms were eager to grow by developing new software products. Networked firms intended to increase information sharing more and were more open in sharing information concerning firms' technical competencies, cost, and commitments to other organizations. Lack of marketing resources was the most important reason for firms to join a network.Research limitations/implicationsThe research setting (how the firms are classified in groups, for example) could benefit from deeper analysis of how network characteristics are connected and which variables best estimate and describe the degree of networking of a firm. A larger sample of firms should be covered to achieve generalizable results. Systematic comparison of industries would also provide essential information on network dynamics.Originality/valueNetworked firms had grown more than non‐networked firms but no connection between profitability perceptions and networking was obtained. In software industry, growth may produce networks but networking seems to support growth.
Electronic shipping documentation in China's international supply chains
Authors: Mei Zhiliang , Dinwoodie John 
Published: July 2005

PurposeBefore China's opening and reform policy transformed foreign trade, personal relationships characterised mainly domestic trade. Burgeoning international supply chains (ISC) require efficient document transfers to accompany large cargo shipments, but China's users of bills of lading (BOLs) increasingly experience delays or fraud. The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential for an internet‐based, third‐party (IBTP) internet service provider (ISP) offering electronic (e)BOLs and shipping documentation services.Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory attitude survey of BOL users compared trader, middlemen and shipping group perceptions’ of current problems and potential for eBOLS.FindingsAccuracy, security and speed subsumed cost considerations for BOL users. Major concerns were delays, typing errors and excessive paperwork. EBOLs proffer speedier documentation, better management information and savings on postage. Concerns for secure data with legal integrity signify mistrust, favouring electronic data interchange (EDI).Research implicationsThis work studied BOL users in Shanghai. Future comparisons of how trust develops as other ISCs adopt eBOLS should identify groups with particular interests and potential industrial partners, evaluate user‐costs, savings and ability to surmount existing problems.Practical implicationsMore traders trusted eBOLS but extensive training is required through state support or partnerships with internet‐based, third‐party internet service providers (IBTPIS) to establish infrastructure, knowledge, confidence and trust amongst potential local users. EBOL data is considered insecure. Its legal status must be clarified.Originality/valueThis paper alerts participants in China's ISCs that trust suffuses trade. It quantifies user valuations of electronic systems that accelerate shipping documentation processes and advocates training of shipper and middlemen groups to dispel mistrust.
Looking beyond value‐based pricing of beef in North America
Authors: Tronstad Russell , Unterschultz James 
Published: July 2005

PurposeQuality traits desired by consumers may not be adequately captured by beef industry standards associated with grid or value‐based pricing alone. Aims to demonstrate this shortcoming by examining strategies of selected companies in North America at the four supply chain levels of cow‐calf genetics, feedlot feeding, processing, and retailing that have been proactive in producing desirable beef attributes efficiently to better meet consumer beef demand.Design/methodology/approachThe vertical alliance between Ralphs retailing, Sunland Beef processing, and a handful of feedlots using narrowly defined beef genetics are examined to illustrate how consumer market research and coordination throughout the supply chain may address many shortcomings associated with current value‐based pricing of beef criteria.FindingsBetter information sharing and coordination between seedstock and retail industries could help assure that consumer preferences of beef palatability and consistency are met while meeting high production efficiency standards.Practical implicationsCow‐calf, feedlot, and packing industries need to better track and manage information flows of genetic‐management paths from consumer to seedstock producer in order for the beef industry to be more competitive.Originality/valueExperiences of our case companies suggest that the beef industry will need to look beyond the North American grid or value‐based pricing of beef in order to maintain or improve market share with competing pork and poultry sectors.
Benchmarking in health services
Authors: Guven‐Uslu Pinar 
Published: July 2005

PurposeTo investigate implementation of benchmarking (BM) in three hospital trusts by adapting receptive context of change model according to BM principles of EFQM business model.Design/methodology/approachPerceptions of managers, clinicians and finance personnel towards implementation of BM are compared. Both qualitative and quantitative data are collected in three hospitals and results are cross compared to analyse both organisational and professional perceptions.FindingsThe paper concludes that there are limits to the rapid or broad implementation of BM principles in health services. It argues that the patients and their expectations are not referred in BM. It also suggests that local implementation programmes should be used for BM health services.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research could use data from other hospitals and apply same/similar framework in order to create knowledge representing the general attitude in hospitals and between professionals towards BM in health services.Practical implicationsBoth academics and professionals working in the field of health services management might find the paper useful especially in managing different professional groups' attitude in managing change in large organisations.Originality/valueThe originality of the paper is the fact that it attempts to report on both professional and organisational approaches in implementation of BM. It also attempts to report on not only organisational factors but also individual and external factors of change for BM.
Performance measurement for green supply chain management
Authors: Hervani Aref A. , Helms Marilyn M. , Sarkis Joseph 
Published: July 2005

PurposeTo introduce and provide an overview of the various issues related to environmental (green) supply chain management performance measurement.Design/methodology/approachThe work relies on experiences, case studies and other literature related to performance measurement in environmental supply chains. It seeks to integrate works in supply chain management, environmental management, and performance management into one framework. A systems framework forms the discussion outline with a focus on controls/pressures, inputs, tools, and outputs as major categories for evaluation and review.FindingsProvides an integrative framework for study, design and evaluation of green supply chain management performance tools. The findings also identify a number of issues that need to still be addressed.Research limitations/implicationsWe have only one design of the issues in which numerous categorizations could be provided. There is limited research in this area and new and current models/developments can provide additional insight. Implications of the work is that these gaps exist and that significantly more work needs to be completed in this field.Practical implicationsA very useful source of information for practitioners that seek to implement these systems within and between organizations. Also, the paper provides numerous areas which researchers could complete additional research and develop research agendas.Originality/valueThis paper provides some of the very first insights into development of a green supply chain management performance measurement system. Typically performance measurement systems are internally and business focused, we expand on these issues by considering inter‐organizational and environmental issues within a business context.
Employee benefits of multi‐owner accounting firms: groundwork for benchmarking
Authors: McGaughey Ronald , Puleo Victor , Casey K. Michael 
Published: July 2005

PurposeThe purpose of this research paper is to provide practitioners and researchers with guidance and ideas for benchmarking employee benefits in companies providing professional services. The research addressed employee benefits in multi‐owner accounting firms.Design/methodology/approachData from a survey of a large number of multi‐owner accounting firms (CPA firms) were analyzed to examine professional employee benefits and to look at the relationship between firm size and benefits offered.FindingsAn analysis of survey results suggested that larger firms offer better benefits than smaller firms. Larger firms tend also to be more profitable. Various employee benefit metrics were examined.Research limitations/implicationsThe survey was limited to accounting firms in the United States, so the findings may have limited value for researchers and practitioners in other countries.Practical implicationsThe better benefits offered by larger accounting firms may allow them to attract better personnel, possibly accounting for their greater profitability. If this is indeed true, then a good benefit package may well be a key success factor for accounting firms, and possibly for other professional services. Firms seeking to improve their competitive position may, therefore, find it advantageous to benchmark their professional employee benefits against the benefit packages of larger more profitable competitors.Originality/valueThis paper examines professional employee benefits in multi‐owner accounting firms and identifies metrics that could be useful to practitioners in benchmarking those benefits. The metrics identified and other findings may provide practitioners with ideas for benchmarking benefits in other professional service organizations.
Sustainability: necessity for a prosperous society
Authors: Fokkema Jacob , Jansen Leo , Mulder Karel 
Published: July 2005

PurposeTo present the challenge of sustainable development, the way in which technology can address that challenge and the task of engineering education to train engineers for it.Design/methodology/approachThe paper describes briefly the history of the environmental and sustainability discourse in The Netherlands, as a densely populated country. It argues that technology should play a major role in SD, but that technological innovation is not enough. Technological systems renewal is a transdisciplinary activity involving relevant stakeholders and disciplines. “Needs” is the basic starting‐point to innovate new systems of provision. The paper reviews relevant literature regarding future orientation of technology development. Based on it, goals for training of engineers are developed.FindingsThe engineer has to meet a threefold challenge: providing new creative approaches on the one hand, and setting up and executing R&D programs that produce results, on the other; cooperating with other disciplines and lay stakeholders, on the one hand, and guarding disciplinary quality, on the other; bridging moralism and strategic pragmatism.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is an introduction, i.e. it sketches the issues without dealing with them in detail.Practical implicationsThe paper draws in broad lines a road‐map for the future of engineering education and sustainable development. The paper is a useful source for those engineering institutions that are formulating a strategy to introduce sustainable development.Originality/valueThe paper goes beyond environmental engineering, not by just adding social and economic issues, but by developing an integrated framework for academic training of engineers.
Learning about environmental issues
Authors: Lundholm Cecilia 
Published: July 2005

PurposeTo present results from a research project on postgraduate and undergraduate students' learning about environmental issues in education.Design/methodology/approachThree cases were carried out with civil engineering students, biology students and postgraduate students. Discussions in classroom were tape‐recorded, as well as discussions while working with assignments, and interviews were carried out.FindingsShows how differently environmental issues can be interpreted, i.e. scientifically, existentially and politically, and the way values and emotions become an aspect of the learning process and reveal the students' difficulties in differentiating between values and descriptions of phenomena. This is analysed and explained in relation to the students' various projects that come into conflict in the educational setting.Practical implicationsThe paper can be of use to those who are engaged in environmental education and raises questions regarding the content of today's environmental education.Originality/valueGives an insight into students' learning processes and experiences in environmental education and the difficulties they can experience when studying such a subject.
Introduction of sustainable development in engineers' curricula
Authors: Lourdel N. , Gondran N. , Laforest V. , Brodhag C. 
Published: July 2005

PurposeOwing to its complexity, sustainable development cannot be simply integrated as a supplementary course within the engineers' curricula. The first point of this paper aims to focalise on how to reflect pedagogically. After dealing with these questions, a tool that can evaluate the student's understanding of sustainable development concepts will be presented.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis of a student's sustainability comprehension, based on cognitive maps, has been developed. The students are asked to write and connect by arrows all the terms that they associate with the concept of sustainable development. The assessment of the aforementioned cognitive maps is based on an approach via semantic category.FindingsThis study shows that the students' perception of sustainable development before the training seems mainly focalised on environmental and economical aspects. After the SD course, an increase in the number of words quoted is noted for each category (social and cultural aspects; the stakeholders, the principles of sustainable development and the allusions to complexity, temporal and spatial dimensions). Their vision seems richer and wider. The training seemed useful to help the students who did not associate sustainable development with diverse dimension to improve this perception.Research limitations/implicationsTo reduce the length of the elaboration of the maps, there is no preliminary training for the construction of maps. To simplify this elaboration, only one type of arrows is used to connect words. To minimise the time of analysis of the maps, the relevance of the relations made between the words is not verified. Besides, the classification of words within the semantic categories implies a certain level of subjectivity.Practical implicationsThis cognitive map method can be a useful tool to improve learning in quantitative terms but also in qualitative terms. Identifying knowledge gaps and misunderstood ideas allows the improvement in the training.Originality/valueThis study presents a new method that can be used to evaluate the impact of training sessions on students. Another advantage is to analyse how the students' knowledge is interconnected. This seems particularly interesting because the study of this transdisciplinary concept also necessitates an integrated vision.
A novel system for continuous protein refolding and on‐line capture by expanded bed adsorption
Authors: Ferré Henrik , Ruffet Emmanuel , Nielsen Lise‐Lotte B. , Nissen Mogens Holst , Hobley Timothy J. , Thomas Owen R.T. , Buus Søren 
Published: July 2005

AbstractA novel two‐step protein refolding strategy has been developed, where continuous renaturation‐bydilution is followed by direct capture on an expanded bed adsorption (EBA) column. The performance of the overall process was tested on a N‐terminally tagged version of human β2‐microglobulin (HAT‐hβ2m) both at analytical, small, and preparative scale. In a single scalable operation, extracted and denatured inclusion body proteins from Escherichia coli were continuously diluted into refolding buffer, using a short pipe reactor, allowing for a defined retention and refolding time, and then fed directly to an EBA column, where the protein was captured, washed, and finally eluted as soluble folded protein. Not only was the eluted protein in a correctly folded state, the purity of the HAThβ2m was increased from 34% to 94%, and the product was concentrated sevenfold. The yield of the overall process was 45%, and the product loss was primarily a consequence of the refolding reaction rather than the EBA step. Full biological activity of HAT‐hβ2m was demonstrated after removal of the HAT‐tag. In contrast to batch refolding, a continuous refolding strategy allows the conditions to be controlled and maintained throughout the process, irrespective of the batch size; i.e., it is readily scalable. Furthermore, the procedure is fast and tolerant toward aggregate formation, a common complication of in vitro protein refolding. In conclusion, this system represents a novel approach to small and preparative scale protein refolding, which should be applicable to many other proteins.
The intrinsically disordered C‐terminal domain of the measles virus nucleoprotein interacts with the C‐terminal domain of the phosphoprotein via two distinct sites and remains predominantly unfolded
Authors: Bourhis Jean‐Marie , Receveur‐Bréchot Véronique , Oglesbee Michael , Zhang Xinsheng , Buccellato Matthew , Darbon Hervé , Canard Bruno , Finet Stéphanie , Longhi Sonia 
Published: July 2005

AbstractMeasles virus is a negative‐sense, single‐stranded RNA virus within theMononegavirales order,which includes several human pathogens, including rabies, Ebola, Nipah, and Hendra viruses. Themeasles virus nucleoprotein consists of a structured N‐terminal domain, and of an intrinsically disordered C‐terminal domain, NTAIL (aa 401–525), which undergoes induced folding in the presence of the C‐terminal domain (XD, aa 459–507) of the viral phosphoprotein. With in NTAIL, an α‐helical molecular recognition element (α‐MoRE, aa 488–499) involved in binding to P and in induced folding was identified and then observed in the crystal structure of XD. Using small‐angle X‐ray scattering, we have derived a low‐resolution structural model of the complex between XD and NTAIL, which shows that most of NTAIL remains disordered in the complex despite P‐induced folding within the α‐MoRE. The model consists of an extended shape accommodating the multiple conformations adopted by the disordered N‐terminal region of NTAIL, and of a bulky globular region, corresponding to XD and to the C terminus of NTAIL (aa 486–525). Using surface plasmon resonance, circular dichroism, fluorescence spectroscopy, and heteronuclear magnetic resonance, we show that NTAIL has an additional site (aa 517–525) involved in binding to XD but not in the unstructured‐to‐structured transition. This work provides evidence that intrinsically disordered domains can establish complex interactions with their partners, and can contact them through multiple sites that do not all necessarily gain regular secondary structure.
Remodeling protein complexes: Insights from the AAA+ unfoldase ClpX and Mu transposase
Authors: Burton Briana M. , Baker Tania A. 
Published: July 2005

AbstractMultiprotein complexes in the cell are dynamic entities that are constantly undergoing changes in subunit composition and conformation to carry out their functions. The protein–DNA complex that promotes recombination of the bacteriophage Mu is a prime example of a complex that must undergo specific changes to carry out its function. The Clp/Hsp100 family of AAA+ ATPases plays a critical role in mediating such changes. The Clp/Hsp100 unfolding enzymes have been extensively studied for the roles they play in protein degradation. However, degradation is not the only fate for proteins that come in contact with the ATP‐dependent unfolding enzymes. The Clp/Hsp100 enzymes induce structural changes in their substrates. These structural changes, which we refer to as “remodeling,” ultimately change the biological activity of the substrate. These biological changes include activation, inactivation (not associated with degradation), and relocation within the cell. Analysis of the interaction between Escherichia coli ClpX unfoldase and the Mu recombination complex, has provided molecular insight into the mechanisms of protein remodeling. We discuss the key mechanistic features of the remodeling reactions promoted by ClpX and possible implications of these findings for other biological reactions.
Interdomain side‐chain interactions in human γD crystallin influencing folding and stability
Authors: Flaugh Shannon L. , Kosinski‐Collins Melissa S. , King Jonathan 
Published: July 2005

AbstractHuman γD crystallin (HγD‐Crys) is a two domain, β‐sheet eye lens protein that must remain soluble throughout life for lens transparency. Single amino acid substitutions of HγD‐Crys are associated with juvenile‐onset cataracts. Features of the interface between the two domains conserved among γ‐crystallins are a central six‐residue hydrophobic cluster, and two pairs of interacting residues flanking the cluster. In HγD‐Crys these pairs are Gln54/Gln143 and Arg79/Met147. We previously reported contributions of the hydrophobic cluster residues to protein stability. In this study alanine substitutions of the flanking residue pairs were constructed and analyzed. Equilibrium unfolding/refolding experiments at 37°C revealed a plateau in the unfolding/refolding transitions, suggesting population of a partially folded intermediate with a folded C‐terminal domain (C‐td) and unfolded N‐terminal domain (N‐td). The N‐td was destabilized by substituting residues from both domains. In contrast, the C‐td was not significantly affected by substitutions of either domain. Refolding rates of the N‐td were significantly decreased for mutants of either domain. In contrast, refolding rates of the C‐td were similar to wild type for mutants of either domain. Therefore, domain interface residues of the folded C‐td probably nucleate refolding of the N‐td. We suggest that these residues stabilize the native state by shielding the central hydrophobic cluster from solvent. Glutamine and methionine side chains are among the residues covalently damaged in aged and cataractous lenses. Such damage may generate partially unfolded, aggregation‐ prone conformations of HγD‐Crys that could be significant in cataract.