bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Examination of rickettsial host range for shuttle vectors based on dnaA and parA genes from the pRM plasmid of Rickettsia monacensis
Authors: Burkhardt Nicole Y. , Price Lisa D. , Wang Xin-Ru , Heu Chan C. , Baldridge Gerald D. , Munderloh Ulrike G. , Kurtti Timothy J. 
Published: February 2022

ABSTRACTThe genus Rickettsia encompasses a diverse group of obligate intracellular bacteria that are highly virulent disease agents of mankind as well as symbionts of arthropods. Native plasmids of Rickettsia amblyommatis (AaR/SC) have been used as models to construct shuttle vectors for genetic manipulation of several Rickettsia species. Here we report on the isolation of the complete plasmid (pRM658B) from Rickettsia monacensis (IrR/Munich) mutant Rmona658B and the construction of shuttle vectors based on pRM. To identify regions essential for replication, we made vectors containing the dnaA and parA genes of pRM with varying portions of the region surrounding these genes and a selection-reporter cassette conferring resistance to spectinomycin and expression of green fluorescent protein. Rickettsia amblyommatis (AaR/SC), R. monacensis (IrR/Munich), Rickettsia bellii (RML 369-C), Rickettsia parkeri (Tate’s Hell), and Rickettsia montanensis (M5/6) were successfully transformed with shuttle vectors containing pRM parA and dnaA. PCR assays targeting pRM regions not included in the vectors revealed that native pRM was retained in R. monacensis transformants. Determination of native pRM copy number using a plasmid-encoded gene (RM_p5) in comparison to chromosomal encoded gltA indicated reduced copy numbers in R. monacensis transformants. In transformed R. monacensis, native pRM and shuttle vectors with homologous parA and dnaA formed native plasmid-shuttle vector complexes. These studies provide insight on the maintenance of plasmids and shuttle vectors in rickettsiae.IMPORTANCEThis paper describes a new series of plasmid shuttle vectors for the transformation of rickettsiae.Shuttle vectors based on parA and dnaA sequences of the plasmid pRM can be used to transform diverse rickettsia as well as its native host Rickettsia monacensis.Our results provide insight into the maintenance of rickettsial-based shuttle vectors in rickettsiae.
Are sake brewers and marketers sending the wrong message to consumers?
Authors: Smith Ryan P. , Ma Forest , McKercher Bob , Baldwin Watson Maceo 
Published: February 2022

PurposeThis study investigates Hong Kong “consumers” sake tasting preferences, willingness to pay and how information commonly found on the bottle or menu affects these attributes.Design/methodology/approachThis study took place inside a four-star hotel lobby restaurant. Convenience sampling was used to collect 184 valid responses from Hong Kong residents. Respondents were given four sakes two blind and two with common information found on the bottles and asked to rate each one independently.FindingsThe results suggest that alcohol content is the most crucial attribute in assessing the overall liking for consumers. In addition, information currently provided by producers and brewers has a negative effect on all assessment attributes and overall liking, but a positive effect on willingness to pay.Practical implicationsSake producers, brewers, marketers, and hotel food and beverage managers should reconsider marketing strategies and the type of information provided to send better signals, increase “consumers” assessment and their overall liking. The results of this study suggest that sake brewers may want to advertise the alcohol content better to achieve higher satisfaction.Originality/valueConsumers taste preferences for sake are not well understood. By applying the signalling theory the study results filled an information gap by examining how sake information commonly found on labels affects hotel guests tasting preferences and willingness to pay.
Does board composition influence working capital management? Evidence from Thailand
Authors: Kumpamool Chamaiporn , Chancharat Nongnit 
Published: February 2022

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the influence of board composition on the working capital management (WCM) of Thai listed firms for the period 2010–2019.Design/methodology/approachProbit regression and two-step system generalized method of moments (GMM) are used to address this issue.FindingsThe results indicate that, while a larger board size causes a lower net working capital holding, it increases its efficiency. Firms with chief executive officer (CEO) duality adopt aggressive policies for their financing but avoid them for their investment to balance the risks and returns of implementing the working capital (WC) policy. Conversely, firms with higher board independence prefer to use conservative WC financing policies. The findings support using both the agency and stewardship theories.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors focus on listed non-financial firms; therefore, the findings may not be generalizable to financial and private firms.Practical implicationsThe findings provide implications for practitioners to focus more on board composition, as it is crucial for WCM. Furthermore, they should avoid applying a single theory in isolation, especially for CEO duality, as one theory is appropriate only for some policies. The authors also provide guidelines for policymakers and regulators to formulate strategies that support more board diversification in terms of size and independence, to enhance board efficiency.Originality/valueTo the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to directly examine the influence of board composition on aggressive WC policies in Thailand.
Role of socioemotional wealth (SEW) in the internationalisation of family firms
Authors: Jain Apoorva , Thukral Sonal , Paul Justin 
Published: February 2022

PurposeFamily firms' desire to preserve and uphold socioemotional wealth (SEW) makes their internationalisation a complex phenomenon. Despite the significance of SEW in guiding family firms' internationalisation decisions, the literature in the underlying research stream is still scant and inconclusive. Thus, the purpose of the study is to gain preliminary insights about various dimensions of SEW and its impact on family firms' degree of internationalisation.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs the multi-case study research design. The multidimensional SEW scale developed by Berrone et al. (2012) is used to calculate the SEW scores for four prominent Indian family businesses through the content analysis of Chairman's Statements for a period of 13 years (2007–08 to 2019–20). Further, the study examines the relationship between SEW and family firms' degree of internationalisation through two non-parametric tests: Somers' D and Kendall-Theil regression.FindingsThe results reveal the prevalence of various dimensions of SEW in family businesses. They also indicate that different FIBER dimensions are prioritised differently in family businesses. Finally, the authors observe that there exists a negative relationship between SEW and internationalisation of family businesses, indicating that SEW hinders the internationalisation of family firms.Research limitations/implicationsThe study lends to the readers, the understanding that SEW plays a significant role in the internationalisation of family firms; thus, some modification might be needed in the existing international business theories in order to explain the role of peculiar family characteristics in the internationalisation decisions of family firms. Further, since SEW hinders the internationalisation of family firms, it raises a question for researchers and family business leaders: Do family firms need to work on their socioemotional ties to avoid making suboptimal decisions?Originality/valueThe study is a response to the call by Cleary et al. (2019) to utilise the results of content analysis of SEW in determining its impact on the family firms' external events. Majority of the studies are still using univariate measures (e.g. percentage of family ownership) to capture SEW. However, this study attempts to calculate the SEW scores of the family firms along these FIBER dimensions through content analysis. This helps in scrupulously capturing the impact of SEW in the internationalisation of family firms.
Servant leadership and organisational citizenship behaviour: the role of public service motivation and length of time spent with the leader
Authors: Gnankob Robert Ipiin , Ansong Abraham , Issau Kassimu 
Published: February 2022

PurposeThe study examined the influence of servant leadership on organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) of employees in Ghana through the intervening roles of public service motivation (PSM) and the length of time spent with the leader.Design/methodology/approachA structured questionnaire was used to gather data from 328 randomly sampled respondents within the six metropoles in Ghana for data analysis. The partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to address the hypotheses of the study.FindingsThe study found that servant leadership has a significant positive influence on OCB and PSM. The study also found that PSM significantly and positively influences OCB. The study finally established that whiles PSM significantly mediated the relationship between servant leadership and OCB, the length of time spent with leaders did not moderate the servant leadership and OCB nexus.Practical implicationsThe study implies that stakeholders in the local government sector, such as the Local Government Service Board, should emphasise employing or promoting supervisors who are servant leadership-driven to occupy key positions within the local government structure. Efforts could also be made to train the supervisors to acquire servant leadership traits.Originality/valueThe results from the study provide significant insights on how the public sector in Ghana and beyond can identify, develop and maintain servant leaders to promote employees OCB. Also, being a pioneering study in Ghana, the results and recommendations from the study have set the pace for future scholars to discuss issues that engulf the public sector.
Perceptions of politics and organizational citizenship behavior: political skill and conscientiousness as moderators
Authors: Tripathi Divya , Singh Shailendra , Varma Arup 
Published: February 2022

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how perceptions of politics (POP) impact individuals’ willingness to engage in organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and how this relationship is impacted by individuals’ conscientiousness and political skills.

Design/methodology/approach
Primary data collected from 211 employee working in the consultancy sector in India were analyzed using hierarchical moderated regression technique.

Findings
The authors found a significant three-way interaction between POP, conscientiousness and political skill in predicting OCB. Presence of high conscientiousness and high political skill alleviates the negative effect of politics on OCB.

Research limitations/implications
The data were collected from consultancy sector organizations, and thus, generalizability of the results is somewhat limited. Further, self-report surveys are used for data collection. Future studies should use multiple methods to collect data to avoid common method bias.

Practical implications
The results suggest that to alleviate the negative effect of POP on OCB, practitioners should recruit employees with high levels of conscientiousness and impart training to develop political skill.

Originality/value
This study attempts to take a holistic person-centric approach to study the moderating effect of personality variable and political skill when examining the linkage between perceived politics and citizenship behavior.
Economic efficiency of higher education institutions in Vietnam between 2012 and 2016: a DEA analysis
Authors: Tran Thien-Vu , Pham Thao Phuong , Nguyen Mai-Huong , Do Long-Thanh , Pham Hiep-Hung 
Published: February 2022

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the economic efficiency of Vietnamese 172 higher education (HE) institutions within the 2012–2016 inclusive period through the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach. The authors also compare public and private, multidisciplinary and mono-disciplinary, non-autonomy and autonomy, non-international and international HE Institutions’ efficiency.Design/methodology/approachThis study derived from an unique dataset from the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) of Vietnam. The data set comprises financial and academic annual reports of higher education institutions (HEIs). The authors achieved totally 204 Vietnamese HEIs, and the sample for analysis is 172 after the elimination of missing units, accounting for 84.3% entire of Vietnamese HEIs. The authors estimate the efficiency scores relying on these selected inputs and outputs by using the DEA method.FindingsOverall, HEIs in Vietnam decreased their operational efficiency during the 2012–2016. It also seems that public universities operate in the absence of market mechanism so that they tend to be less efficient than their counterparts in private sector. Based on our analysis, the authors observe that the HEIs including the international programmes have higher efficiency scores rather than these without international programmes.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the theoretical aspects as follows. First, it enriches the existent efficiency literature on HE using the DEA approach. This stands out among similar studies in Vietnam in terms of duration (from 2012–2016) and data size (172 entities). Second, the research is the first to examine HEIs in terms of disciplinary (mono or multi-disciplinary) and autonomy (autonomous and non-autonomous), internalization (international programmes). These aspects have been silent in previous studies of HEIs in Vietnam.
Environmental degradation effect on agricultural development: an aggregate and a sectoral evidence of carbon dioxide emissions from Ghana
Authors: Kwakwa Paul Adjei , Alhassan Hamdiyah , Adzawla William 
Published: February 2022

PurposeQuality environment is argued to be essential for ensuring food security. The effect of environmental degradation on agriculture has thus gained the attention of researchers. However, the analyses of aggregate and sectoral effect of carbon dioxide emissions on agricultural development are limited in the literature. Consequently, this study examines the effect of aggregate and sectoral carbon emissions on Ghana's agricultural development.Design/methodology/approachTime-series data from 1971 to 2017 are employed for the study. Regression analysis and a variance decomposition analysis are employed in the study.FindingsThe results show that the country's agricultural development is negatively affected by aggregate carbon emission while financial development, labour and capital increases agricultural development. Further, industrial development and emissions from transport sector, industrial sector and other sectors adversely affect Ghana's agriculture development. The contribution of carbon emission together with other explanatory variables to the changes in agricultural development generally increases over the period.Originality/valueThis study analyses the aggregate and sectoral carbon dioxide emission effect on Ghana's agricultural development.
Fear of missing out (FOMO) to the joy of missing out (JOMO): shifting dunes of problematic usage of the internet among social media users
Authors: Rautela Sonica , Sharma Sarika 
Published: February 2022

Purpose
With the rapid improvement in digital infrastructure, the popularity of digital devices and smartphones in every pocket, the yearning to stay connected with others has increased manifold, especially in youngsters. This has raised multiple concerns primarily related to the problematic usage of the internet (PUI). The current research study aims to scrutinize the association between PUI, psychological and mental health (PMH), social media fatigue (SMF), fear of missing out (FOMO), desire to disconnect (DD) and its relation with a novel phenomenon of joy of missing out (JOMO).

Design/methodology/approach
The present research study embraces the empirical research method through quantitative analysis. The proposed theoretical model was empirically tested using primary data, collected through a self-designed structured questionnaire. The study sample included individuals between 16 and 39 years of age as these are the most active demographics on social media. The model is empirically tested with the help of structural equation modeling applied using software IBM AMOS 20.0 and SPSS 22.0. Initially, first-order confirmatory factor analysis was conducted, to measure and test the fit indices of the proposed model. Secondly, path analysis using structural equation modeling was carried out for the model.

Findings
Empirical synthesis of this research shows that PUI significantly and positively impacts mental and psychological health, FOMO and SMF. Also, SMF significantly and positively affects the DD which significantly and positively affects the JOMO. However, as depicted by the results of this study, FOMO have no considerable impact on SMF.

Originality/value
A study that connects the PUI with PMH, SMF and FOMO is rare to find. Second, this study uses data collected from social media users of India in the age group of 16–39 years. This slice of the population is most active in internet, and internet-enabled platform and are scantly studied, especially in the Indian context. This makes the study more exciting and crucial.
Use of multi-objective examination model to sensitivity analysis for sustainability with three new practices
Authors: Şimşek Ahmet Bahadır 
Published: February 2022

Purpose
The study has two main objectives. The first is to introduce three new examination policy practices: overbooked exam rooms, a substitute invigilator and an inheritance of the invigilation distribution. The second is the use of the examination model to determine the sustainability of the system against expected changes and to obtain long-term strategic information. This study aims to obtain managerial insights on the sustainability of the examination system with the newly introduced practices; it does not claim to propose solutions for large-scale problems.

Design/methodology/approach
This study introduces a multi-objective mathematical model that contains a couple of constraints that belong to new practices. To check the sustainability of the system, this study gets help from sensitivity analysis, which informs the decision-maker about how the results will react to parameter changes. The authors perform all experiments in the Python/Gurobi modeling environment.

Findings
The results demonstrate that the proposed practices are effective in the efficient use of resources. Also, this study shows that the examination model can be used as a stress test so that the weaknesses of the system can be identified and long-term strategic information can be obtained.

Originality/value
The contribution of this study is twofold: the introduction of examination policy practices that are overbooked exam rooms, a substitute invigilator and an inheritance of the invigilation distribution. Overbooked exam rooms aim to use resources effectively, taking into account the possibility of temporarily increasing the exam room capacity. The substitute invigilator protects the examination process against sudden events. The inheritance of the invigilation distribution helps to ensure fairness; and the use of the examination model to obtain managerial insights on expectations. This allows testing the validity of existing policies and making necessary changes, taking into account possible changes in the system. In this respect, it differs from the studies in the literature and fills an important managerial gap.
Modern slavery statements and the UK's largest housebuilding companies: an exploratory research paper
Authors: Jones Peter , Comfort Daphne 
Published: February 2022

PurposeModern slavery has been identified as a problem in the construction industry, but the issue has received very limited attention in the academic literature. This exploratory paper looks to explore one of the ways in which the United Kingdom (UK)'s largest housebuilding companies have publicly addressed the issue by reviewing their modern slavery statements.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts a simple methodological approach to review the modern slavery statements of the largest housebuilding companies within the UK and offers some reflections on these statements.FindingsThe findings identified a number of policy and practice responses, which characterised the selected housebuilding companies' approaches to modern slavery. The companies' approaches to modern slavery statements were seen as aspirational and perhaps best described as a work in progress.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors recognise that the paper has a number of limitations. The empirical material for the review is drawn exclusively from the corporate websites of the selected housebuilding companies at a set point in time and does not include any primary information supplied by, or obtained from, the companies' executives, managers or employees or any information obtained from the companies' contractors, subcontractors or suppliers.Originality/valueThe paper offers an exploratory review of the modern slavery statements published by the largest housebuilding companies within the UK. As such, the review makes a small contribution to addressing a gap in the academic literature on modern slavery within the housebuilding industry and will hopefully stimulate future research in the field.
Personalising clinical pathways in a London breast cancer service
Authors: Viney William , Day Sophie , Bruton Jane , Gleason Kelly , Ion Charlotte , Nazir Saima , Ward Helen 
Published: February 2022

AbstractUsing interview and observational data from a busy and research‐intensive breast cancer service in the United Kingdom, we discuss recent developments in personalised medicine. Specifically, we show how clinical and research practices meet in clinical pathways that are reconfigured in response to changing approaches of diagnosing, monitoring, treating and understanding cancers. Clinical pathways are increasingly sensitive to changes in evidence deduced through new technologies and therapies as well as decisions based on intensive, iterative analysis of data collected across a range of platforms. We contribute to existing research by showing how the organisation of clinical pathways both maintains established clinical practices and responds to new research evidence, managing a threshold between evidence‐based and experimental medicine. Finally, we invite comparisons with other forms of personalisation to understand how they depend on the ‘real time’ collection, analysis and application of data.