bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Content validation of value-adding indicators for corporate real estate management: insights from a developing country
Authors: Amos Daniel , Boakye-Agyeman Naana Amakie 
Published: February 2022

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to test the content validity of value-adding indicators derived from a comprehensive review of literature and expert interviews within the context of the nascent corporate real estate management (CREM) practices in Ghana.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire survey was conducted on a panel of experts to assess the content relevance and clarity of the value-adding indicators. The individual content validity (I-CVI) index as well as the average scale content validity index (S-CVI) were computed. Preliminary interviews were analyzed using summative content analysis.FindingsThe I-CVI for relevance and clarity ranged from 0.33 to 1.00, whereas the average S-CVI was > 0.80. Critical analysis of the results by corrections, eliminations due to lower I-CVI scores and suggestions from the experts resulted in a final list of 50 indicators grouped under 10 domains. The results from the content validity confirm the applicability of the value-adding indicators in literature within the Ghanaian context. The study provides detailed sustainability indicators while introducing a new value-adding parameter that relates to CREM preparedness for pandemics such as the Covid-19.Research limitations/implicationsFurther psychometric assessment such as construct validity, inter- and intra-examiner reliability and internal consistency of the indicators is recommended.Practical implicationsThe indicators developed through the content validation can assist in the design and review of measures for the assessment of added value by corporate real estate managers and researchers.Originality/valueThe paper presents the first attempt to test and develop added value indicators within the context of a developing country by taking a systematic content validation procedure.
Accountability in anti-money laundering – findings from the banking sector in Finland
Authors: Juntunen Juuli , Teittinen Henri 
Published: February 2022

Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore how the banking industry seeks to prevent money laundering and how the phenomenon is reflected in practice in the daily work of bank employees in Finland.

Design/methodology/approach
This study is a qualitative case study by its nature. The concept of accountability has been used as a theoretical approach in the study.

Findings
This study shows that knowing the customer is one of the most important factors in preventing money laundering. The risk-based approach, customer risk classification and bank’s internal instructions have partially clarified daily routines in anti-money laundering (AML). Technological developments and various payment services have generated new ways of money laundering, but technology has also made it easier to monitor cash flows through various monitoring systems. The challenge is constantly changing regulations concerning how to act in different situations for different customers.

Originality/value
This study investigated the accountability of banks in AML in Finland and highlighted how bank employees implement accountability for AML in an ever-changing socio-technical context.
Augmented reality: Caribbean academic libraries of the future
Authors: Duncan Adrian St. Patrick 
Published: February 2022

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide substantive information for academic libraries in the Caribbean to consider the benefits of implementing augmented reality (AR) for greater access and usage of their services.

Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative method with the usage of questionnaires as well as the content analysis was used for data collection.

Findings
The research discovered that there is an impending need for AR in academic libraries, especially in this 21st century filled with ever-evolving technological advancements. Additionally, the research outlined the importance for academic libraries to tap into this are for greater access to its services by students off-campus as well as the physically challenged individuals.

Research limitations/implications
This paper will only be focusing on the benefits of AR for academic libraries and their furtherance. It will not attest to the cost of implementation as well as it will not consider the maintenance of it for academic libraries in the Caribbean.

Practical implications
The research disclosed numerous benefits for academic libraries in the Caribbean in developing AR collections. Additionally, with the increasing use and development of technologies in libraries, it is the ideal medium for distance learning as well as greater access to libraries by its students and other users.

Originality/value
This paper is the penultimate appetizer for the AR conversation and, by extension, implementation. Additionally, it sets the framework for researchers and practitioners that the application service is lacking despite the rise of technological advancements in the Caribbean.
Exploring the factors influencing continuous usage intention of academic social network sites
Authors: Yang Zhiwei , Zhou Qingshan , Chiu Dickson K.W. , Wang Yuqi 
Published: February 2022

PurposeAcademic social network site (ASNS) is a new form of academic service in the social media age, and the study of ASNS user behavior is of great significance to academic librarians due to its recent popularity. This research explores the influencing factors of the continuous usage intention of ASNSs.Design/methodology/approachA survey of academics in China was conducted, and 361 responses were collected and analyzed with a structural equation model, which involves satisfaction, continuous usage intention, expectation confirmation, perceived usefulness (PU), social identity, referent network size and perceived interactivity (PI).FindingsSatisfaction, expectation confirmation, PU, referent network size, social identity and PI significantly impact continuous usage intention. Satisfaction is a mediating variable by which expectation confirmation, PU, referent network size, social identity and other influencing factors affect continuous usage intention. Expectation confirmation and referent network size are two endogenous variables that can explain and predict the continuous usage intention of ASNSs.Originality/valueExisting research does not consciously distinguish between adoption, use and continuous use, and only scant studies have conducted empirical research. Further, despite the widespread ASNS usage in China, Chinese scholars' studies are few, as existing studies have mainly focused on users of the UK, the US and India.
New technology and desired skills of early career accountants
Authors: Jackson Denise , Michelson Grant , Munir Rahat 
Published: February 2022

Purpose
Technological advances have led to accounting roles shifting from transaction focussed tasks to using data generated by technology to inform stakeholder strategies, resulting in changing skill requirements. This study aims to investigate how early career accountants (ECAs) and organisations value different skills among ECAs, how technology is impacting on these skills and the preparedness of ECAs for future technological work in different organisational settings.

Design/methodology/approach
The research adopted a multi-stakeholder, mixed-method approach, surveying 315 ECAs and 175 managers/recruiters and interviewing 10 from each group. The sample drew from different industry sectors and organisation types in Australia, with all states represented.

Findings
There was broad agreement among ECAs and managers on requisite skills for technology. Most ECAs and managers believed new technology is influencing the skills required in accounting, yet the impact was considered greater among ECAs and effects varied by organisational setting. Overall, the research did not support ECAs as “digital natives” and illuminated the importance of exposure to technology, a change mindset and lifelong learning to better prepare them for new technology.

Originality/value
This study makes an important contribution to understanding how and why skills for success in accounting are evolving in the context of new technology and how prepared ECAs are for technology from both their own and managers/recruiters’ perspectives. It highlights the need for greater dialogue, benchmarking and evaluation of performance in technology-related skills among new accountants and their managers. Further, it identifies areas where ECAs would most benefit from targeted support, aiding personal career success and organisational competitiveness.
Correlation between distribution of cash dividends from capital reserves, ultimate controlling shareholders and corporate governance
Authors: Liu Yen-Yu , Lee Pin-Sheng , Yang Chih-Hao 
Published: February 2022

Purpose
This study aims to discuss whether a new accounting policy can help enterprises withstand operating risks and whether corporate governance can play a supervisory role. Taiwan took the lead worldwide in allowing companies to distribute cash dividends from capital reserves. Compared with traditional cash dividends distributed from retained earnings, this move was aimed at maintaining the stability of cash dividends and helping listed companies address the risks of temporary downturns. However, the distribution of cash dividends from capital reserves may violate the principle of capital maintenance and damage creditors’ equity. The authors sought to examine whether corporate governance could play a supervisory role.

Design/methodology/approach
The present study targeted Taiwanese listed companies and cited data from the Taiwan Economic Journal. The study period was from 2011–2019. The authors tested the hypotheses using the least square method.

Findings
The results showed that ultimate controlling shareholders of listed companies can maximize their own interests through ownership arrangements, whereas corporate governance cannot play a supervisory role nor protect creditors’ equity. The findings provide insight on whether, in the development process of corporate governance, appropriate measures are taken to protect creditors’ equity in addition to shareholders’ equity, or achieve a good coordination of interests among all stakeholders.

Originality/value
The ultimate controlling shareholders or directors of a listed company would seek to maximize their own interests, and transfer the operating risks to creditors through the arrangement of dividend policy, thus harming creditors’ equity. However, independent directors cannot play a supervisory role. The authors inferred that corporate governance standards previously focused on the shareholder level or alleviation of the agency problem between controlling shareholders and non-controlling shareholders but ignored creditors’ equity.
The buffering role of servant leadership on the relationship between organizational politics and employee task performance and citizenship behaviors
Authors: Khattak Mohammad Nisar , O'Connor Peter , Muhammad Noor 
Published: February 2022

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to examine whether servant leadership (SL) buffers the negative relationship between perceived organizational politics (POP) and employee performance outcomes.Design/methodology/approachTime-lagged multi source data were collected from 236 supervisor-subordinate dyads in a public sector university in Pakistan. SL, POP and several control variables were measured in subordinates at time 1, and supervisor ratings of organization citizenship behaviors and task performance were measured at time 2. The authors performed moderated multiple regression analysis to test the hypotheses underpinning the study.FindingsFindings revealed that POP was negatively related to employee task performance and two types of organization citizenship behavior (individual and organizational). Findings also revealed that SL attenuated the negative effect of POP on employee task performance and the two types of organization citizenship behavior.Practical implications SL is particularly important in organizational cultures characterized by high politics; therefore, managers seeking to enhance task performance and citizenship behavior in employees should adopt this style of leadership if possible.Originality/value This is the first study conducted in the South Asian context that has examined whether, and how, SL buffers the negative effects of POP on employee task performance and organization citizenship behavior.
Plasticity and evolution shape the scaling of metabolism and excretion along a geothermal temperature gradient
Authors: Benavente Javiera N. , Fryxell David C. , Kinnison Michael T. , Palkovacs Eric P. , Simon Kevin S. 
Published: February 2022

Abstract

Physiological rates are heavily dependent on temperature and body size. Most current predictions of organisms’ response to environmental warming are based on the assumption that key physiological rates such as metabolism and excretion scale independently with body size and temperature and will not evolve. However, temperature is a significant driver for phenotypic variability in the allometric scaling and thermal sensitivity of physiological rates within ectotherm species, suggesting that evolution may play a role in shaping these parameters.

We common‐reared six populations of western mosquitofish that have recently established (~100 years ago) in geothermal springs along a broad thermal gradient (19–33°C) to determine whether these scaling parameters are affected by evolutionary and/or plastic responses to warming over ecological timescales. Each population was reared at four different temperatures (23, 26, 30 and 32°C). We measured routine metabolic and nitrogen excretion rates on mosquitofish across a wide body size range.

We found evidence for plasticity, but not evolution, increasing the allometric scaling of metabolic rate with temperature. Plasticity in metabolism allometry reflected a decrease in thermal sensitivity at smaller body sizes.

We found evidence for evolution of phenotypic plasticity on the allometry of excretion rate, reflecting evolutionary differences in how thermal sensitivity varies with body size across different populations.

Evolutionary differences in excretion rate scaling did not influence the relationship between excretion and metabolism across rearing temperatures, suggesting that warming does not affect the balance between mosquitofish energy demands and nutrient recycling rates.

Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
Improved detection of mass effect species assembly for applied metacommunity thinking
Authors: Bried Jason T. , Vilmi Annika 
Published: February 2022

Abstract

Dispersal mass effects pose major challenges and opportunities for applied metacommunity ecology. A recent paper in Journal of Applied Ecology (https://doi.org/10.1111/1365‐2664.13701) presented a mass effect (ME) detection framework and grouped the species prone to ME in an extensive stream diatom survey.

We tested the putative ME diatom group and two other reported species groups for signatures of (a) dispersal‐based to joint niche–dispersal assembly using the dispersal–niche continuum index and (b) metacommunity homogenization based on total compositional variance and individual species contributions to beta diversity. Signatures of ME were found in all three diatom groups, raising uncertainty about which species were distributed by ME.

Due to the ambiguity and data demands we propose an alternate framework that enables more precise and robust ME detection with simpler data requirements. Demonstrating this approach on the same dataset, we assembled a new candidate ME group and systematically removed niche processes, dispersal limitation, stochasticity and generalist tendency as alternative explanations.

Synthesis and applications. Mass effects have strong implications for biomonitoring and spatial prioritization within dispersal networks, yet standardized methodology explicitly aligned to ME has been lacking. Ecologists now have options to enable ME research and application in more projects, datasets and study systems. Ultimately these new frameworks will help to integrate metacommunity thinking with more spatially informed resource protection and management.
Effects of dual deletion ofglnRandmtrAon expression of nitrogen metabolism genes inStreptomyces venezuelae
Authors: Zhu Yanping , Wang Jiao , Su Wenya , Lu Ting , Li Aiying , Pang Xiuhua 
Published: February 2022

SummaryGlnR activates nitrogen metabolism genes under nitrogen‐limited conditions, whereas MtrA represses these genes under nutrient‐rich conditions inStreptomyces. In this study, we compared the transcription patterns of nitrogen metabolism genes in a double deletion mutant (ΔmtrA‐glnR) lacking bothmtrAandglnRand in mutants lacking eithermtrA(ΔmtrA) orglnR(ΔglnR). The nitrogen metabolism genes were expressed similarly in ΔmtrA‐glnRand ΔglnRunder both nitrogen‐limited and nutrient‐rich conditions, with patterns distinctly different from that of ΔmtrA, suggesting a decisive role for GlnR in the control of nitrogen metabolism genes and further suggesting that regulation of these genes by MtrA is GlnR‐dependent. MtrA and GlnR utilize the same binding sites upstream of nitrogen metabolism genes, and we showed strongerin vivobinding of MtrA to these sites under nutrient‐rich conditions and of GlnR under nitrogen‐limited conditions, consistent with the higher levels of MtrA or GlnR under those respective conditions. In addition, we showed that bothmtrAandglnRare self‐regulated. Our study provides new insights into the regulation of nitrogen metabolism genes inStreptomyces.
miR‐129‐2upregulation induces apoptosis and promotesNSCLCchemosensitivity by targetingSOX4
Authors: Zhou Weizheng , Cai Chengliang , Lu Jie , Fan Qiao 
Published: February 2022

AbstractBackgroundAs one of the main causes of death worldwide, the treatment of non‐small‐cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is still unsatisfactory. This study aimed to explore the role of miR‐129‐2 in cell apoptosis and NSCLC chemosensitivity.MethodsThe effect of miR‐129‐2 on NSCLC was investigated using lung cancer cell lines (A549, NCl‐H23, and HCC827), a normal lung cell line (BEAS‐2B), and NSCLC tissues and adjacent healthy tissues. The oncogeneSOX4was verified as the target gene of miR‐129‐2 by luciferase reporter assay and real‐time polymerase chain reaction.ResultsmiR‐129‐2 expression was downregulated in NSCLC tissues, NCl‐H23 cells, and A549 cells. miR‐129‐2 upregulation induced apoptosis in NCl‐H23 and A549 cells. miR‐129‐2 upregulation also inhibited NSCLC in a xenograft mouse model, which was related to downregulation ofSOX4expression. Furthermore, miR‐129‐2 andSOX4were aberrantly expressed in the cisplatin‐resistant lung cancer cell line A549/DDP, and upregulation of miR‐129‐2 expression promoted cisplatin sensitivity in A549/DDP cells.ConclusionsIn conclusion, miR‐129‐2 expression was downregulated in NSCLC tissues and cell lines, and its upregulation induced cell apoptosis and promoted NSCLC chemosensitivity by regulatingSOX4. Therefore, miR‐129‐2 can serve as a potential diagnostic and therapeutic target in NSCLC.
Ants are effective pollinators of common buckwheat Fagopyrum esculentum
Authors: Natsume Kae , Hayashi Shouta , Miyashita Tadashi 
Published: February 2022

Abstract
Proper management of wild pollinators of agricultural crops requires identification of effective pollinator species. Although non‐bee pollinators are gaining increasing attention, small ground‐dwelling insects such as ants are often deemed ineffective. However, our previous study found a positive correlation between ant visitations to flowers and seed set in the distylous crop common buckwheat, suggesting a potential role of ants as effective pollinators.
In this study, we aimed to confirm the effectiveness of ant pollination by conducting ant‐exclusion experiments in the field. In addition, as evidence that ants can transfer pollen, we also counted the number of pollen grains attached to the body surface of two abundant flower‐visiting ant species, Formica japonica and Camponotus japonicus.
Under the ant‐exclusion treatment, the buckwheat plants showed a significant reduction (30% on average) in seed set compared with control plants, and this effect was consistent across both flower morphs (pin and thrum) and two seasons (summer and autumn). Moreover, pollen grains of each flower morph were found on both ant species visiting both types of flower, suggesting a potential contribution to seed set in buckwheat.
The results of this study suggest that ants may be an underappreciated pollinator of common buckwheat.
NLRP3 inflammasome is involved in testicular inflammation induced by lipopolysaccharide in mice
Authors: Sano Michiya , Komiyama Hiromu , Shinoda Riina , Ozawa Ren , Watanabe Hiroyuki , Karasawa Tadayoshi , Takahashi Masafumi , Torii Yasushi , Iwata Hisataka , Kuwayama Takehito , Shirasuna Koumei 
Published: February 2022

AbstractProblemSystemic inflammation induced by infection, which is associated with testicular inflammation, predisposes males to subfertility. Recently, the nucleotide‐binding oligomerization domain, leucine‐rich repeat‐, and pyrin domain‐containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome was identified as a key mediator of inflammation, and excessive activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome was shown to contribute to the pathogenesis of a wide variety of diseases. However, the mechanisms underlying infectious inflammation in the testis remain unclear. We investigated the effect of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐induced systemic inflammation on the role of the NLRP3 inflammasome in murine testes.Method of studyWe performed in vivo and in vitro studies using an LPS‐induced model of NLRP3 inflammasome activation and testicular inflammation.ResultsIntraperitoneal administration of LPS significantly impaired sperm motility in the epididymis of wild type (WT) and NLRP3‐knockout (KO) mice. LPS administration stimulated interleukin (IL)‐1β production and secretion in the testes of WT mice, and these adverse effects were improved in the testes of NLRP3‐KO mice. LPS administration also stimulated neutrophil infiltration as well as its chemoattractant C‐C motif chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2) in WT testes, which were suppressed in NLRP3‐KO testes. In in vitro cell culture, treatment with LPS and NLRP3 inflammasome activation significantly induced IL‐1β and CCL2 secretion from WT but not NLRP3‐KO testicular cells.ConclusionsTaken together, our results suggest that testicular cells have the potential to secrete IL‐1β and CCL2 in an NLRP3 inflammasome‐dependent manner and that these cytokines from the testis may further exacerbate testicular function, resulting in subfertility during infectious diseases.