bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Genome-wide DNA methylation, imprinting, and gene expression in human placentas derived from Assisted Reproductive Technology
Authors: Auvinen P , Vehviläinen J , Rämö K , Laukkanen I , Marjonen-Lindblad H , Wallén E , Söderström-Anttila V , Kahila H , Hydén-Granskog C , Tuuri T , Tiitinen A , Kaminen-Ahola N 
Published: October 2023

ABSTRACTAssisted reproductive technology (ART) has been associated with increased risk for growth disturbance and imprinting disorders, but the molecular mechanisms and whether they are a result of the ART procedures or the underlying subfertility are unknown. Here we performed genome-wide DNA methylation analysis by EPIC Illumina microarrays and gene expression analysis by mRNA sequencing for a total of 80 ART and 77 control placentas, including separate procedure- and sex-specific analyses. ART-associated changes enriched in the pathways of hormonal regulation, insulin resistance, neuronal development, and vascularization. Observed changes in the number of stromal cells as well asTRIM28andNOTCH3expressions in ART placentas indicated impaired angiogenesis and growth. The enrichment of DNA methylation changes in the imprinted regions and alterations inTRIM28, ZFP57, andNLRP5suggested defective stabilization of the imprinting. Furthermore, downregulated expression of imprinted endocrine signaling moleculeDLK1, associated with both ART and subfertility, provides a potential mechanism for the metabolic and phenotypic features associated with ART.
Positive addiction recovery therapy: a replication and follow-up study
Authors: Ogilvie Lisa , Carson Jerome 
Published: October 2023

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to see if the affirmative results seen in the pilot study of the positive addiction recovery therapy (PART) programme are replicable and durable given a new cohort of participants. PART is a programme of work designed to improve the recovery and well-being of people in early addiction recovery. Its foundation is in the G-CHIME (growth, connectedness, hope, identity, meaning in life and empowerment) model of addiction recovery. It also uses the values in action character strengths and includes a set of recovery protection techniques.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a mixed method experimental design, incorporating direct replication and a follow-up study. Measures for recovery capital, well-being and level of flourishing are used to collect pre-, post- and one-month follow-up data from participants. The replication data analysis uses the non-parametric Wilcoxon test, and the follow-up analysis uses the Friedman test with pairwise comparison post hoc analysis. The eligibility criteria ensure participants (n= 35) are all in early addiction recovery, classified as having been abstinent for between three and six months.FindingsThis study found a statistically significant improvement in well-being, recovery capital and flourishing on completion of the PART programme. These findings upheld the hypotheses in the pilot study and the successful results reported. It also found these gains to be sustained at a one-month follow-up.Practical implicationsThis study endorses the efficacy of the PART programme and its continued use in a clinical setting. It also adds further credibility to adopting a holistic approach when delivering interventions which consider important components of addiction recovery such as those outlined in the G-CHIME model.Originality/valueThis study adds to the existing evidence base endorsing the PART programme and the applied use of the G-CHIME model.
Integrating technology within the sales-service ecosystem: the emergent sales techno-ecosystem
Authors: Bauer Carlos , Galvan John M. , Hancock Tyler , Hunter Gary K. , Nelson Christopher A. , Riley Jen , Tanner Emily C. 
Published: October 2023

Purpose
Sales organizations embrace technological innovation. However, salespeople’s willingness to use new technology influences a firm’s return on investment, representing a significant concern for the organization. These concerns highlight tensions regarding the tradeoffs associated with technology implementations. The purpose of this study is to offer insights that help reduce the complexities of sales technology (ST) by exploring the changing dynamics of contemporary business relationships.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper synthesizes the ST literature using the service ecosystem perspective to propose the sales techno-ecosystem (STE) framework, providing new insights into organizational decision-making related to the ongoing digital transformation of sales tasks.

Findings
This synthesis of the ST literature with the service ecosystem seeks to clarify the impact of technology within the evolving nature of buyer–seller relationships by providing four unique perspectives.

Research limitations/implications
Perspective 1 reviews the sales-service ecosystem framework and develops the theoretical underpinnings and relevant terminologies. Perspective 2 summarizes critical aspects of the ST literature and provides foundations for future research in the STE. Perspective 3 offers a more granular view, explicating roles and contexts prevalent in buyer–seller–technology interactions. Perspective 4 provides a set of tenets and advances research questions related to each tenet.

Practical implications
The culmination of these four perspectives is the introduction of five key tenants designed to help guide strategy and research.

Originality/value
The paper advances Hartmann et al. (2018) service ecosystem paradigm by explicating critical aspects of its ST domain to generate insights for theory and practice.
Decolonising marketing: five fundamental decisions for customer engagement
Authors: Greeff Wilhelmina Johanna 
Published: October 2023

Purpose
This paper aims to offer practical, data-led guidance for the decolonisation of marketing strategy, especially as it relates to customer engagement. It does so with an acute understanding of the constraints of brand legitimacy.

Design/methodology/approach
The findings of this paper are informed both by a conceptual unpacking of institutional, decolonisation and customer engagement literature, as well as an empirical methodology that presents an embedded single case study of a top-ranking banking brand, using in-depth qualitative interviews as well as content analyses of brand communications.

Findings
The paper examines the notion of institutional brand legitimacy alongside the decolonisation of customer engagement. It offers five empirically driven decisions that marketers must consider when they attempt to decolonise their customer engagement strategies. These revolve around a decolonised bottom-up approach; establishing new biases for customer insights; the management of opposing forces; being strategically transformative; and going beyond diversity.

Research limitations/implications
A single brand case study is offered that uses a relatively small sample of interviewees and does not include customers of the brand. Further research is therefore needed to reflect other organisational contexts and stakeholders. Just so, the paper specifically looks at the ways in which decolonisation and institutional legitimacy intersect for customer engagement. Further studies that focus on other organisational concepts impacted by decolonisation would be thought-provoking.

Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first empirical investigation that offers practical guidance for the decolonisation of marketing strategies – as it relates to customer engagement or any other facets of marketing.
A visually based approach to optimizing retail facility designs and shelve layouts
Authors: Mohammed Adham Mokhtar Mostafa 
Published: October 2023

Purpose
This study aims to explore the impact of retail facilities’ (RF) characteristics on customers' spatial cognition and accessibility to products, which inherently affect the facility's performance. Namely, the ratios of the facilities’ dimensions and the shelving configurations are investigated.

Design/methodology/approach
The visual attributes of RF are used as the method of assessment, relying on the principles of the Space Syntax theories; several design alternatives of RF are generated which represent different characteristics and compared using computer software (Depthmap X). The perceived variance in performance sheds light on the influence of the investigated characteristics.

Findings
The results have pointed out that dimension ratios can affect the facilities’ performance, especially with the shelving configuration considered. Furthermore, certain shelving layouts are more advantageous compared to other layouts. Other design features have been concluded, shedding light on measures for optimizing performance.

Research limitations/implications
Due to the endless number of possibilities of retail facility designs, the study has focused on simplified designs only, excluding intricate designs which can possibly offer an additional important perspective on design influences.

Practical implications
The findings benefit the RF sector by producing customer-centered designs through optimizing layouts and configurations, improving product visibility and enhancing accessibility. This potentially enhances costumers' experiences and promotes satisfaction, thus attracting more consumers and increasing sales.

Originality/value
Although the Space Syntax principles are long-established, their application to RF is novel. This is also true for the findings which can represent a guide for retail facility designs.
Quantifying shape similarity of female upper body silhouettes based on 2D images
Authors: Xu Kaiyi , Zhao Songling , Zhang Jian , Gu Bingfei 
Published: October 2023

PurposeThis study focused on how to quantify the similarities of body shape based on the front and side images, and a shape comprehensive index (ISC) of female upper body shape based on 2D images was proposed.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 190 young women were shot for front and side images, and 18 shape parameters were automatically extracted, including seven angles and 11 ratio parameters. The coefficient of variation method was used to assign different weights for related parameters, and the ISC was calculated to describe the body shape of each subject. Five cross-sectional curves of the upper body (e.g. shoulder, chest, waist, abdomen and hip) were selected for exploring the range of shape similarity.FindingsAccording to the value of ISC, if the difference among the subjects is within the range of ±0.02, their body shapes can be regarded as similar, and the subject with the minimum distance is considered as the most similar. Error results show that the error range of the angle parameter is from 0.2° to 3.6° and the ratio range is from 0.001 to 0.119. Moreover, the t-test value among the parameters of the similar body is above 0.05, indicating that there is no significant difference for the upper body shape of the similar groups.Originality/valueThis method can quantify body shapes with the upper body characteristics of young women instead of subjective judgment. The study can be extended to other parts of the body and can also provide a new thought for shape similarity retrieval based on 2D images.
Substituting professional with informal care? A response to “how to handle gerontocracy”
Authors: Gösenbauer Barbara 
Published: October 2023

PurposeThe comment addresses the idea of substituting professional elder care with informal care provided by early retirees to save economic costs.Design/methodology/approachThe comment arose from reading “How to handle gerontocracy”, scientific research and critical, analytical thinking.FindingsWhile having early pensioners deliver elderly care has positive implications, substituting professional with informal care must be challenged. First, the “unused reservoir” of early pensioners might be overestimated, as they often already have care responsibilities. Second, the substitution of professional services is already happening due to staff shortages. Third, untrained caregivers might struggle to provide the needed care quality, resulting in worse health outcomes (and higher follow-up costs). Finally, there are concerns of social sustainability: because of role expectations, mainly women may take on care tasks, reinforcing social inequality. Also, the third sector might lose hours of volunteer work.Originality/valueThe comment appeals to a critically rethinking of the idea of substituting professional services with informal care provision and argues for differentiated and well-tailored policy measures, taking into account the complex nature of (informal) caregiving.
Does the UK Companies Act of 2006 matter for the private companies? Evidence from real and accruals earnings management practices
Authors: Elsalem Bilal Ahmad , Shawtari Fekri Ali , Qotba Ahmad Mohammed , Bajaher Mohammed , Asseri Mohammed 
Published: October 2023

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine both accruals and real earnings management in a large sample of private companies in the UK using data from 2002 to 2009 following the implementation of the UK Act of 2006.Design/methodology/approachA panel data analysis using GMM has been adopted to examine the objectives of the study and answer the research questions.FindingsThe results of this study showed that the imposition of the Companies Act of 2006, on its own, did lead to changes in earnings management behaviour, in both accruals-based earnings and real earnings management. Moreover, this study also found that firms that chose to provide IFRS financial statements tended to show less discretionary earnings management, however, it tended to have no impact on real earnings management.Practical implicationsIn accordance with the research findings, standard setters with some insight tend to determine how capital markets see the information provided under the legislation such as the UK Act of 2006 in developed countries and thereby ensure long-term sustainability in a modern and sophisticated financial world. This study provides an insight into the successful implementation of the UK act of 2006, and its influence on the aspect of financial reporting.Originality/valueThe novel conclusion reached in the study is that there exists a strong and direct link between the smooth implementation of UK Act of 2006 and the practices of both accruals and real earnings management in real-world business and financial scenarios, particularly, in private companies.
Problem areas of determining the sample size in qualitative research: a model proposal
Authors: Tutar Hasan , Şahin Mehmet , Sarkhanov Teymur 
Published: October 2023

PurposeThe lack of a definite standard for determining the sample size in qualitative research leaves the research process to the initiative of the researcher, and this situation overshadows the scientificity of the research. The primary purpose of this research is to propose a model by questioning the problem of determining the sample size, which is one of the essential issues in qualitative research. The fuzzy logic model is proposed to determine the sample size in qualitative research.Design/methodology/approachConsidering the structure of the problem in the present study, the proposed fuzzy logic model will benefit and contribute to the literature and practical applications. In this context, ten variables, namely scope of research, data quality, participant genuineness, duration of the interview, number of interviews, homogeneity, information strength, drilling ability, triangulation and research design, are used as inputs. A total of 20 different scenarios were created to demonstrate the applicability of the model proposed in the research and how the model works.FindingsThe authors reflected the results of each scenario in the table and showed the values for the sample size in qualitative studies in Table 4. The research results show that the proposed model's results are of a quality that will support the literature. The research findings show that it is possible to develop a model using the laws of fuzzy logic to determine the sample size in qualitative research.Originality/valueThe model developed in this research can contribute to the literature, and in any case, it can be argued that determining the sample volume is a much more effective and functional model than leaving it to the initiative of the researcher.
Commentary on “positive family connections: co-producing a virtual group programme for family carers of children with learning disabilities or who are autistic”
Authors: Mejía-Buenaño Suzy 
Published: October 2023

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on Griffin et al.’s paper, “Positive family connections: Co-producing a virtual group programme for family carers of children with learning disabilities or who are autistic”.

Design/methodology/approach
This is a commentary on co-production, drawing on Griffin et al.’s paper and the values base of the field.

Findings
Co-production is a valuable approach which seeks to empower and include key people in research. As suggested by Griffin et al., disseminating learning about co-production is an important additional principle of co-production, which demonstrates a values-based commitment to co-production.

Originality/value
This commentary is aimed at professionals and researchers working in the field of learning disabilities who are keen to learn about and do co-production.
Optimizing invader suppression to restore native species: Leveraging species traits to overcome collateral damage
Authors: Lambert Timothy D. , McIntyre Peter B. , Moody Kristine N. , Ellner Stephen P. 
Published: October 2023

Abstract

Strategies to control ongoing biological invasions are often developed by modelling the invasive species' population and aiming to reduce its abundance. However, if the ultimate objective is to protect and restore native species, focussing solely on the invader may not be optimal because it does not account for (i) species interactions that can cause the invader's impacts to depend nonlinearly on its abundance, (ii) collateral damages to native species incurred due to nonspecific removal methods or (iii) native‐invader trait differences.

To identify an invader suppression strategy that maximizes average native population size, we applied optimal control theory to a two‐species model of a native species threatened by an invasive competitor. We examined trade‐offs between iterative physical removals that selectively target invaders and intensifiable chemical control that is nonselective but has higher efficacy.

We found that while iterative removals were capable of supporting large native populations when applied continuously, cost could be prohibitively high. In contrast, when favourable native‐invader trait differences enabled native species to re‐establish more quickly than invaders, intensifiable methods could achieve substantial restoration benefits at lower cost by focussing removal effort into periodic, high‐efficacy events.

In a metapopulation, removals that rotated among spatial patches were optimal when the native species had higher dispersal, whereas synchronous removals were preferred when native recovery was initiated locally and the invader could disperse.

For a case study in Hawaiian streams, we compared how effective two alternative methods of removing invasive live‐bearing fishes (poeciliids) might be at restoring the endemic freshwater goby Sicyopterus stimpsoni. We found that rotenone (a piscicidal chemical) offered superior benefits when the control budget was small and efficacy was high, but that electrofishing (use of electricity to manually collect target fish) was better with larger budgets and in many lower‐efficacy scenarios.

Synthesis and applications. Our findings demonstrate that, by accounting for species interactions and collateral damage, invasive species control strategies can be optimized in light of species traits. Choices about the timing, locations and types of removal events present opportunities to increase the efficiency with which invasive species suppression benefits native species.
HOW THÖŊ PINY BECAME JUBA NA BARI: Naming and Place‐Making in Urban South Sudan
Authors: Doll Christian J. 
Published: October 2023

AbstractFollowing South Sudan's independence in 2011, a myriad of local, regional and global actors have flocked to its capital city, Juba, to influence and benefit from the ongoing state‐making process. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Juba between 2012 and 2015, this article demonstrates how urban ‘space’ in Juba is rendered into ‘place’ through everyday practices of naming that articulate urbanites’ contrasting experiences of the Sudanese civil wars, the city's tumultuous history, and their position within its—and the new nation's—present and future. This is most visible in a growing and contested Juba neighborhood that has come to be called by two different names, each tied to distinct experiences of conflict and displacement within and beyond the city. These and other namings and place‐makings index historically‐rooted ethno‐spatial understandings of South Sudan, memories of violence, and the sense of differential access to the city's economic potential in the face of ongoing upheaval. Urban naming and place‐making in Juba (and in other cities similarly impacted by conflict), it is argued, is a central domain through which urbanites disrupt official mappings and mitigate disorienting violence. These discursive practices are a vital means by which people forge stable lives and productive futures in the face of a precarious political present.
Streetwork at the crossroads: An evaluation of a street gang outreach intervention and holistic appraisal of the research evidence
Authors: Hureau David M. , Braga Anthony A. , Lloyd Tracey , Winship Christopher 
Published: October 2023

AbstractSpurred by the success of public health violence interventions, and accelerated by policy pressure to reduce violence without exacerbating overpolicing and mass incarceration, streetwork programs—those that provide anti‐violence services by neighborhood‐based workers who perform their work beyond the walls of parochial institutions—have positioned themselves as the most important non–law‐enforcement violence prevention option available to urban policy makers. Yet despite their importance, the state of the field seems difficult to interpret for academics and practitioners alike. In this article, we make several contributions that bring forth new findings and deliver new perspectives on streetwork as a violence reduction strategy. First, we offer an extended analytic review of the streetwork evaluation literature that connects the study of contemporary public health violence interventions to a preceding tradition of criminologically inspired streetwork studies. Second, we present the results of an impact evaluation of StreetSafe Boston (SSB)—a multiyear streetwork intervention that served 20 Boston gangs. We find that the SSB intervention had no detectable effect on violence among the gangs that it served. We conclude by offering a framework for understanding a field at multiple crossroads: past and present, proclaimed successes and failures, help and harm.