bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Is the health system ready for future crises? A qualitative study protocol
Authors: Rahimi-Ardabili Hania , Magrabi Farah , Coiera Enrico 
Published: November 2022

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic serves as a clarion call to ensure health systems are better prepared to meet future emergencies. Digital Health could play a significant role in preparing health systems to bend and stretch their resources and cope with various shocks by facilitating tasks such as disease monitoring and care delivery. However, the health system’s needs during the crises have not been thoroughly examined from the perspective of health professionals in general and in the Australian health setting in particular. Here we describe the protocol of a qualitative design to learn from frontline healthcare workers’ experiences of the pandemic response that can guide preparation for future crises using digital health.
Testing for bi-directional rejection thresholds to sweetness and their links to sugar intake and sweet-taste drink consumption
Authors: Peng Mei , Ginieis Rachel , Abeywickrema Sashie , McCormack Jessica , Prescott John 
Published: November 2022

AbstractBackground and AimsSugar intake has been linked to obesity, however, the relationship between individual sugar perception and dietary choice remains unclear. The current study aims to measure individual bi-directional rejection thresholds and compare these measures to sugar intake and consumption patterns of sweet-taste beverages.MethodsA cross-section design will be used to analyse the relationship between sweetness perception, sucrose liking, and dietary intake. Participants will attend laboratory sessions to assess sucrose liking, ascending and descending rejection thresholds, and detection thresholds, and complete a 4-day weighed food-diary to assess dietary intake. ANCOVA will be used to test for differences in detection threshold and hedonic VAS ratings between the liking and disliking group, with age, gender, and BMI as covariates. A generalised linear mixed-models will be applied to test for differences in individual ascending versus descending rejection threshold across the two sweet liker status groups. Regression models will be used to test the role of ascending versus descending rejection thresholds on predicting sugar and sweet-taste beverage consumption.DiscussionMore research focusing on links between individual sweetness perception and sugar intake will be important for elucidating the mechanism underpinning sensory effects on dietary behaviour.
RBPMS promotes contractile smooth muscle splicing and alters phenotypic behaviour of human embryonic stem cell derived vascular smooth muscle cells
Authors: Jacob Aishwarya G , Moutsopoulous Ilias , Petchey Alex , Mohorianu Irina , Sinha Sanjay , Smith Christopher WJ 
Published: November 2022

AbstractDifferentiated Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells (VSMCs) express a unique network of splice isoforms (smooth muscle specific alternative splicing - SM-AS) in functionally critical genes including those comprising the contractile machinery. We previously described RNA Binding Protein Multiple Splicing (RBPMS) as a potent driver of contractile, aortic tissue like SM-AS in VSMCs using rodent models. What is unknown is how RBPMS affects VSMC phenotype and behaviour. Here, we use human embryonic stem cell-derived VSMCs (hES-VSMCs) to dissect the role of RBPMS in SM-AS in human cells and determine the impact on VSMC phenotypic properties. hES-VSMCs are inherently immature and display only partially differentiated SM-AS patterns while RBPMS levels are undetectable endogenously. Hence, we used an over-expression system and found that RBPMS induces SM-AS patterns in hES-VSMCs akin to the contractile tissue VSMC splicing patterns in multiple events. We presentin silicoand experimental findings that support RBPMS’ splicing activity as mediated through direct binding and via functional cooperativity with splicing factor RBFOX2 on a significant subset of targets. Finally, we demonstrate that RBPMS is capable of altering the motility and the proliferative properties of hES-VSMCs to mimic a more differentiated state. Overall, this study emphasizes a critical splicing regulatory role for RBPMS in human VSMCs and provides evidence of phenotypic modulation by RBPMS.
Hypoxic tumors are sensitive to FLASH radiotherapy
Authors: Leavitt Ron J. , Almeida Aymeric , Grilj Veljko , Montay-Gruel Pierre , Godfroid Céline , Petit Benoit , Bailat Claude , Limoli Charles L. , Vozenin Marie-Catherine 
Published: November 2022

AbstractTumor hypoxia is a major cause of resistance to cancer treatments and especially to radiotherapy (RT) and we wanted to assess whether ultra-high dose rate FLASH RT could overcome this resistance. We engrafted tumor cells of various origins subcutaneously in mice to provide a reliable and rigorous way to modulate oxygen supply via vascular clamping or carbogen breathing. We irradiated tumors using a single 20 Gy fraction at either conventional (CONV) or FLASH dose-rate. Using multiple different subcutaneous tumor models, and in contrast CONV-RT, FLASH-RT retained anti-tumor efficacy under extreme hypoxia. These findings demonstrate that in addition to normal tissue sparing, FLASH-RT overcomes hypoxia-mediated tumor resistance. Follow-up molecular analysis using RNAseq profiling uncovered FLASH-specific inhibition of cell proliferation and translation as well as metabolic shifts that discriminated FLASH-RT from CONV-RT. These data provide new and specific insights into the mechanism of action and identify novel targets for intervention.
Fluorescein-based sensors to purify human α-cells for functional and transcriptomic analyses
Authors: Kahraman Sevim , Shibue Kimitaka , De Jesus Dario F. , Hu Jiang , Manna Debasish , Wagner Bridget K. , Choudhary Amit , Kulkarni Rohit N. 
Published: November 2022

AbstractPancreatic α-cells secrete glucagon, an insulin counter-regulatory peptide hormone critical for the maintenance of glucose homeostasis. Investigation of the function of human α-cells remains a challenge due to the lack of cost-effective purification methods to isolate high-quality α-cells from islets. Here, we use the reaction-based probe diacetylated Zinpyr1 (DA-ZP1) to introduce a novel and simple method for enriching live α-cells from dissociated human islet cells with > 97% purity. The α-cells, confirmed by sorting and immunostaining for glucagon, were cultured up to 10 days to form α-pseudoislets. The α-pseudoislets could be maintained in culture without significant loss of viability, and responded to glucose challenge by secreting appropriate levels of glucagon. RNA-sequencing analyses (RNA-seq) revealed that expression levels of key α-cell identity genes were sustained in culture while some of the genes such asDLK1, GSN, SMIM24were altered in α-pseudoislets in a time-dependent manner. In conclusion, we report a method to sort human primary α-cells with high purity that can be used for downstream analyses such as functional and transcriptional studies.
Exploring how the fast-slow pace of life continuum and reproductive strategies structure microorganism life history variation
Authors: Romeijn Josje , Smallegange Isabel M. 
Published: November 2022

AbstractStudying life history strategies in microorganisms can help predict their performance when complex microbial communities can be categorised into groups of organisms with similar strategies. Microorganisms are typically classified as copiotroph or oligotroph, but it has been proven difficult to generalise their life history strategies to broad lineages. Here we tested if the fast-slow continuum and reproductive strategy framework of macro-organismal life histories can be applied to microorganisms. We used demographic and energy budget data from 13 microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, a protist and a plant) to examine how generation time, survivorship, growth form, age at maturity, recruitment success, and net reproductive rate structure microbial life histories. We found that 79% of microorganism life-history variation fell along two uncorrelated axes. Like macro-organisms, we found a fast–slow pace of life continuum, including shorter-lived microorganisms at one end, and longer-lived microorganisms that mature later in life at the other. Also, like macro-organisms, we found a second, reproductive strategy axis, with microorganisms with greater lifetime reproductive success and decreased mortality at older age at one end, and microorganisms with the opposite characteristics at the other end. Microorganismal life history strategies did not covary proportionally to their shared evolutionary history. Thus, whereas this work suggests that the macro-organismal fast-slow continuum and reproductive strategy framework could be realistically applied to microorganisms, their life history processes cannot be inferred from patterns in taxonomic composition.Impact statementAnimals and plants show distinct differences in their pace of life: some have high reproduction and high mortality, others low. Here we show that microorganisms display similar such life history patterns, igniting future research on microbial life history strategies.Data summarySupplemental data, R code and MatLab code are deposited in Figshare athttps://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16831543.v2[27].
Generate a new crucian carp (Carassius auratus) strain without intermuscular bones by knocking outbmp6
Authors: Kuang Youyi , Zheng Xianhu , Cao Dingchen , Sun Zhipeng , Tong Guangxiang , Xu Huan , Yan Ting , Tang Shizhan , Chen Zhongxiang , Zhang Tingting , Zhang Tan , Dong Le , Yang Xiaoxing , Zhou Huijie , Guo Weilun , Sun Xiaowen 
Published: November 2022

AbstractElimination of intermuscular bones (IMBs) is vital to the aquaculture industry of cyprinids. In our previous study, we characterizedbmp6as essential in the development of IMBs in zebrafish. Knockout ofbmp6results in the absence of IMBs in zebrafish without affecting growth and reproduction. Therefore, we hypothesized thatbmp6could be used to generate new cyprinid strains without IMBs by gene editing. In this study, we established a gene editing strategy for knocking out the two orthologs ofbmp6in diploid crucian carp (Carassius auratus). We obtained an F3population with both orthologs knocked out, in which no IMBs were detected by bone staining and X-ray, indicating that the new strain without IMBs (named WUCI strain) was successfully generated. Furthermore, we extensively evaluated the performance of the new strain in growth, reproduction, nutrient components, muscle texture and structure, and metabolites in muscle. The results showed that the WUCI strain grew faster than the wild-type crucian carp at 4-month-age. The reproductive performance and flesh quality did not show significant differences between the WUCI strain and wild-type crucian carp. Moreover, the metabolomics analysis suggested that the muscle tissues of the WUCI strain significantly enriched some metabolites belonging to the Thiamine metabolism, Nicotinate and Nicotinamide Metabolism pathway, which plays beneficial effects in anti-aging, anti-oxidant, and anti-radiation damage. In conclusion, we established a strategy to eliminate IMBs in crucian carp and obtain a WUCI strain whose performance was expected compared to the wild-type crucian carp; meanwhile, the WUCI strain enriched some beneficial metabolites to human health in muscle tissue. This study is the first report that a farmed cyprinid strain without IMBs, which could be stably inherited, was obtained worldwide; it provided excellent germplasm for the cyprinids aquaculture industry and a useful molecular tool for eliminating IMBs in other cyprinids.
Improving anti-money laundering in bitcoin using evolving graph convolutions and deep neural decision forest
Authors: Mohan Anuraj , P.V. Karthika , Sankar Parvathi , Maya Manohar K. , Peter Amala 
Published: November 2022

PurposeMoney laundering is the process of concealing unlawfully obtained funds by presenting them as coming from a legitimate source. Criminals use crypto money laundering to hide the illicit origin of funds using a variety of methods. The most simplified form of bitcoin money laundering leans hard on the fact that transactions made in cryptocurrencies are pseudonymous, but open data gives more power to investigators and enables the crowdsourcing of forensic analysis. With the motive to curb these illegal activities, there exist various rules, policies and technologies collectively known as anti-money laundering (AML) tools. When properly implemented, AML restrictions reduce the negative effects of illegal economic activity while also promoting financial market integrity and stability, but these bear high costs for institutions. The purpose of this work is to motivate the opportunity to reconcile the cause of safety with that of financial inclusion, bearing in mind the limitations of the available data. The authors use the Elliptic dataset; to the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the largest labelled transaction dataset publicly available in any cryptocurrency.Design/methodology/approachAML in bitcoin can be modelled as a node classification task in dynamic networks. In this work, graph convolutional decision forest will be introduced, which combines the potentialities of evolving graph convolutional network and deep neural decision forest (DNDF). This model will be used to classify the unknown transactions in the Elliptic dataset. Additionally, the application of knowledge distillation (KD) over the proposed approach gives finest results compared to all the other experimented techniques.FindingsThe importance of utilising a concatenation between dynamic graph learning and ensemble feature learning is demonstrated in this work. The results show the superiority of the proposed model to classify the illicit transactions in the Elliptic dataset. Experiments also show that the results can be further improved when the system is fine-tuned using a KD framework.Originality/valueExisting works used either ensemble learning or dynamic graph learning to tackle the problem of AML in bitcoin. The proposed model provides a novel view to combine the power of random forest with dynamic graph learning methods. Furthermore, the work also demonstrates the advantage of KD in improving the performance of the whole system.
A new shape of the supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Lau Yui-yip , P.V. Ranjith , Man Hin Chan Eve , Kanrak Maneerat , Varma Aparna J. 
Published: November 2022

Purpose
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a new normal for international business (IB) activities, leaving them pondering their next steps. The decreasing effectiveness of current vaccines to protect individuals against new variants have created uncertainty on how to respond to the new waves of the COVID-19 infection. This study aims to empirically assesses how IBs perceive the unfolding challenges in the supply chain due to the pandemic and the solutions.

Design/methodology/approach
The survey data is obtained from 166 logistics professionals in Hong Kong and India.

Findings
The results reveal that returns on investment, logistics, delays and imports are the most affected areas. The most often recommended solutions for supply chain management (SCM) include using local manufacturing capabilities, analytics and automation, offering better customer service, providing more effective transportation means, ensuring diligence around optimization and focusing on sustainability.

Originality/value
The findings of this study help to improve supply chain operations. This study also provides recommendations for changes to SCM in response to the new normal.
Consumer logics and the relational performance of selling high-risk goods: the case of elective cosmetic surgery
Authors: Au Anson 
Published: November 2022

PurposeThis article investigates how medical specialists as professionals and elective cosmetic surgery tourists as consumers relationally negotiate decisions within the cosmetic surgery clinic. Drawing on a Goffmanian approach, this article explores the processual social structures that shape consumer logics in the clinic as a social space and as a type of professional institution.Design/methodology/approachThis article is based on ethnographic fieldwork in cosmetic surgery clinics in South Korea.FindingsThis article identifies two genres of professional strategies (spatial arrangements and dramaturgical performances) that are leveraged by medical specialists to assert control over and persuade consumers to purchase cosmetic surgery.Research limitations/implicationsThe valorization of surgery captured in this article suggests that surgical modifications may serve as another vehicle for entrenching class inequality between those able and those unable to afford surgery.Practical implicationsThis article offers recommendations for future policymaking in terms of the regulatory oversight of the consumer profiles eligible for surgery and the marketing practices of clinics.Originality/valueThis article offers a micro-level account of how the high-risk good of cosmetic surgery is sold by medical specialists in charismatic and affective bids to enhance their legitimacy, authority and trust.
Assessing factors influencing consumers' non-adoption intention: exploring the dark sides of mobile payment
Authors: Behera Rajat Kumar , Bala Pradip Kumar , Rana Nripendra P. 
Published: November 2022

PurposeThe new ways to complete financial transactions have been developed by setting up mobile payment (m-payment) platforms and such platforms to access banking in the financial mainstream can transact as never before. But, does m-payment have veiled consequences? To seek an answer, the research was undertaken to explore the dark sides of m-payment for consumers by extending the theory of innovation resistance (IR) and by measuring non-adoption intention (NAI).Design/methodology/approachThree hundred individuals using popular online m-payment apps such as Paytm, PhonePe, Amazon Pay and Google Pay were surveyed for the primary data. IBM AMOS based structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyse the data.FindingsEach m-payment transaction leaves a digital record, making some vulnerable consumers concerned about privacy threats. Lack of global standards prevents consumers from participating in the m-payment system properly until common interfaces are established based on up-to-date standards. Self-compassion (SC) characteristics such as anxiety, efficacy, fatigue, wait-and-see tendencies and the excessive choice of technology effect contribute to the non-adoption of m-payment.Originality/valueThis study proposes a threat model and empirically explores the dark sides of m-payment. In addition, it also unveils the moderator's role of SC in building the structural relationship between IR and NAI.
Islamic bank customer satisfaction, trust, loyalty and word of mouth: the CREATOR model
Authors: Khan Sadia Mehfooz , Ali Muhammad , Puah Chin-Hong , Amin Hanudin , Mubarak Muhammad Shujaat 
Published: November 2022

PurposeThis study aims to investigate two primary objectives. First, this study examines the influence of modified service quality dimensions on Islamic bank customer satisfaction using a compliance, reliability, empathy, assurance, tangible, operational efficiency, responsiveness (CREATOR) model. Second, the study explores the relationship between customer satisfaction, trust, loyalty and word of mouth (WOM) in Islamic banking of Pakistan.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed model was analyzed using PLS-SEM-based approach. A total of 312 usable responses were used for data analysis.FindingsThe results indicate that all CREATOR dimensions have a significant positive impact on Islamic banks’ customer satisfaction. Similarly, this study also found a significant positive relationship between customer satisfaction, trust, loyalty and WOM. Overall, this study modified a well-established service quality framework by successfully implementing the CREATOR model in Islamic banking.Originality/valueThis study will provide helpful policy guidelines for Islamic bank managers improve their service quality and strengthen their relationships with existing and new customers. The authors are also sure that their proposed model will add value to the ongoing service quality literature by indicating the role of operational effectiveness in increasing customer satisfaction and promoting positive WOM.
Mediation path study on the effect of venture capital support on firm's corporate social responsibility
Authors: Lu Yuzhong , Sun Yanqi 
Published: November 2022

PurposeThis study examined the influence of corporate governance (CG) in relation to venture capital (VC) investment on invested firm's corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance in the Chinese context. More specifically, this paper examined the mediation of the proportion of independent directors (INDD), management shareholding (MSH) and executives' political connections (POLC) in the above-mentioned relationship.Design/methodology/approachThis empirical study performed multiple mediation testing and bootstrap mediation robustness test on data from Chinese A-class shares IPO companies between 2010 and 2018.FindingsThe results of direct relationship analysis showed that VC support is detrimental to firm' CSR performance, consistent with previous research studies. The indirect effect analysis showed that VC reduced firm' CSR through reduction of INDD on board and increased MSH. Conversely, VC contributed to firm's CSR through higher POLC, which confirmed the significance of the joint mediation model.Practical implicationsThis study offers stakeholders the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of the role of VC institutions, independent directors and executives, in terms of firm's CSR, as well as provides insights on control rights allocation and policy drafting on independent directors when considering accessing VC support.Originality/valueBy analyzing the mediation model of the VC–CSR relationship, this paper provides evidence to enrich the debate on the role of CG in the relation between VC and firm's CSR.
Risk benefit assessment of acrylamide in bakery products and bread
Authors: Aouzelleg Amar , Ojinnaka Delia 
Published: November 2022

Purpose
The purpose of this conceptual paper was to introduce the risk–benefit approach to bakery products in relation to their acrylamide content. Acrylamide is a compound which gives rise to risks of cancer, and several mitigating procedures have been in place for various products and processes. This paper concentrated on bakery products and took a risk–benefit approach in relation to acrylamide.

Design/methodology/approach
Papers published in peer-reviewed journals were reviewed. A combination of keywords such as acrylamide, bakery products and risk/benefit were used to find sources. Additional sources, such as governmental and non-governmental organisations documents, were also used when relevant. After looking at the main characteristics of acrylamide, the potential benefit of bread was also looked at. The paper summarises known information on acrylamide and looks at the risk and benefit of bakery products in relation to this compound.

Findings
The risk analysis approach can be extended to include benefits so that a balanced conclusion can be reached whether a product is an acceptable part of the diet or not. Exposure to acrylamide was a function of the product type and preparation/process. Bakery products were a source of many nutrients, and the risk regarding acrylamide may be controlled by careful product and process design.

Originality/value
There was contradictory information regarding how unsafe acrylamide is. In this paper, the risk–benefit approach has been qualitatively used to weigh both the risks and benefits of the bakery product category.