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Purpose This study aims to investigate the drivers and impact of balanced scorecard (BSC) usage on organizational effectiveness in manufacturing companies. The objectives of the paper were to assess the organizational factors affecting the usage intensity of the BSC; the relative benefits of BSC determining its adoption speed; and the extent to which BSC usage enhances organizational effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a survey research design. Data collection was through a structured questionnaire administered on senior accounting/ finance personnel of 300 manufacturing companies that are members of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria. Binary logistic regression analysis, discriminant analysis and structural equation modeling (maximum likelihood estimation method) were used to analyze survey data obtained from 104 BSC adopters. Findings Result shows that the three organizational factors affecting BSC usage intensity are affiliation to a foreign entity, availability of specialist skills and business strategy (strategic pattern). The strongest predictor is, however, the availability of specialist skills. The strongest determinants of the BSC adoption speed are the need for financial stability and the importance of customer feedbacks. The impact of BSC usage on organizational effectiveness is positive, statistically significant but weak. The inability of BSC usage to contribute appreciably to organizational effectiveness is attributable to the lack of integration among the performance measures in the BSC framework and the shallow usage rate of BSC. Practical implications Although it is commendable that financial stability and customer satisfaction strongly drive BSC adoption speed, the low rating recorded by other factors related to product development, employee development and process improvement suggests that the performance measures in the BSC framework are not used in an integrative manner. This also confirms that the BSC, like other innovative management accounting techniques, is applied at a rudimentary level by organizations in Nigeria. Originality/value The current study contributes to knowledge by exposing the organizational factors and relative benefits driving BSC adoption. It provides empirical evidence on why the BSC may not deliver the optimal benefit of improving organizational effectiveness despite its popularity and potential as an integrated performance measurement (IPM) apparatus that can add value to organizations. The paper adds to the scarce literature on IPM in developing countries. Drawing from the result that availability of specialist skills is the strongest predictor of BSC usage intensity, the practice of enmeshing the management accounting function with general accounting/finance should be discouraged.

Introduction: Bacterial biofilms are an important virulence factor in chronic periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) and other orthopedic infection since they are highly tolerant to antibiotics and host immunity. Antibiotics are mixed into carriers such as bone cement and calcium sulfate bone void fillers to achieve sustained high concentrations of antibiotics required to more effectively manage biofilm infections through local release. The effect of antibiotic diffusion from antibiotic-loaded calcium sulfate beads (ALCS-B) in combination with PMMA bone cement spacers on the spread and killing of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Xen41 (PA-Xen41) biofilm was investigated using a “large agar plate” model scaled for clinical relevance. Methods: Bioluminescent PA-Xen41 biofilms grown on discs of various orthopedic materials were placed within a large agar plate containing a PMMA full-size mock “spacer” unloaded or loaded with vancomycin and tobramycin, with or without ALCS-B. The amount of biofilm spread and log reduction on discs at varying distances from the spacer was assessed by bioluminescent imaging and viable cell counts. Results: For the unloaded spacer control, PA-Xen41 spread from the biofilm to cover the entire plate. The loaded spacer generated a 3 cm zone of inhibition and significantly reduced biofilm bacteria on the discs immediately adjacent to the spacer but low or zero reductions on those further away. The combination of ALCS-B and a loaded PMMA spacer greatly reduced bacterial spread and resulted in significantly greater biofilm reductions on discs at all distances from the spacer. Discussion: The addition of ALCS-B to an antibiotic-loaded spacer mimic increased the area of antibiotic coverage and efficacy against biofilm, suggesting that a combination of these depots may provide greater physical antibiotic coverage and more effective dead space management, particularly in zones where the spread of antibiotic is limited by diffusion (zones with little or no fluid motion).

Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.5–22.7) and 16.5 cm (13.3–19.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8–144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries. http://purl.org/eprint/status/PeerReviewed published version Article

Common variants in 94 loci have been associated with breast cancer including 15 loci with genome-wide significant associations (P<5 × 10−8) with oestrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer and BRCA1-associated breast cancer risk. In this study, to identify new ER-negative susceptibility loci, we performed a meta-analysis of 11 genome-wide association studies (GWAS) consisting of 4,939 ER-negative cases and 14,352 controls, combined with 7,333 ER-negative cases and 42,468 controls and 15,252 BRCA1 mutation carriers genotyped on the iCOGS array. We identify four previously unidentified loci including two loci at 13q22 near KLF5, a 2p23.2 locus near WDR43 and a 2q33 locus near PPIL3 that display genome-wide significant associations with ER-negative breast cancer. In addition, 19 known breast cancer risk loci have genome-wide significant associations and 40 had moderate associations (P<0.05) with ER-negative disease. Using functional and eQTL studies we implicate TRMT61B and WDR43 at 2p23.2 and PPIL3 at 2q33 in ER-negative breast cancer aetiology. All ER-negative loci combined account for ∼11% of familial relative risk for ER-negative disease and may contribute to improved ER-negative and BRCA1 breast cancer risk prediction. B.C.A.C. was funded through a European Community Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement no 223175 (HEALTH-F2-2009-223175; COGS); Cancer Research UK (C1287/A10118, C1287/A10710, C12292/A11174, C1281/A12014, C5047/A8384, C5047/A15007, C5047/A10692); the National Institutes of Health Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Breast Cancer (CA116201), R01 grants (CA128978, CA176785, CA192393), and Post-Cancer GWAS initiative (1U19 CA148537, 1U19 CA148065 and 1U19 CA148112 - the GAME-ON initiative); the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for the CIHR Team in Familial Risks of Breast Cancer, the Breast Cancer Res. Foundation, and the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. CIMBA genotyping was supported by National Institutes of Health grant (CA128978); the Department of Defence (W81XWH-10-1-0341); and the Breast Cancer Res. Foundation. CIMBA data management and data analysis were supported by Cancer Research UK grants C12292/A11174 and C1287/A10118. This study made use of data generated by the Wellcome Trust Case Control consortium. Functional studies were supported by the Florida Breast Cancer Foundation. A full description of funding and acknowledgments is provided in Supplementary Note 1.

Several remote sensing applications require pulsed sources in the mid-infrared spectral regime with high average powers and good beam quality. Ho:YAG lasers have a number of attractive features for high power generation at 2.1 microns, either for direct applications or as a pump source for parametric conversion to longer infra-red wavelengths. Unfortunately, direct diode pumping of Ho:YAG is not practical, so a two-step process is generally employed in which one or more diode-pumped thulium-doped lasers are used to directly pump (in-band) the Ho:YAG laser. In response, we have investigated a slab-based architecture for scaling the output power of a Tm:YLF laser to the 100W power regime at 1.91microns, corresponding to a strong Ho:YAG absorption line. Multiple slab lasers with moderate beam quality in the plane of the slab can be combined to efficiently end-pump a low-doping concentration Ho:YAG rod in a pump-guided configuration. In a preliminary demonstration, two 2at.% doped Tm:YLF slab lasers with a spatially multiplexed output of 74W were employed to end-pump a 1.5mm diameter, 80mm long, 0.25at.% Ho:YAG barrel-polished rod. A two mirror plano-concave cavity, with 11% output coupling transmission, produced a CW output of 38W with a slope efficiency of 60% with respect to the incident power. Q-switched operation at a repetition rate of 20Hz with two intracavity Brewster plate polarizers and a 60% transmitting output coupler produced 14mJ pulses with a pulse duration (FWHM) of 18ns. This architecture offers an attractive route for future high-power 2micron lasers.

The mechanics of vein and dyke formation is investigated from field observations of natural fracture systems and by using techniques from rock fracture mechanics. Veins from the Culm Basin near Millook Haven, south-west England, are used to develop and test hypotheses that natural crack geometry can be used to infer paleostress conditions and propagation histories from the time of their initiation. It is suggested that veins initially propagate as essentially mode I (extension) fractures. Local crack- induced stresses generated through mechanical interaction, or by subsequent loading effects on pre- existing cracks may involve mixed-mode deformations, which can produce minor cracks and structures that accommodate shear displacements. Sigmoidal vein profiles and vein fillings are modelled as outgrowths of mechanical crack interaction, under fixed boundary conditions, and in the absence of high finite shear strains. IVIaps of overlapping veins with a wide range of geometries, sizes and spacing values are explained in terms of selective mechanical interaction and the stress shielding effect of longer fractures upon shorter fractures. Straight, strongly overlapping veins imply the controlling influence of a relatively high remote crack-parallel compressive stress. En echelon vein arrays are re-examined in terms of the kinematics of transtension-transpression. Determination of displacements across vein arrays and from fibres and wall-rock markers, indicate that there is a spectrum of vein geometries which can be directly related to wall-rock displacements. The role of tectonic stress and fluid pressure in the generation of an effective tensile stress for initial vein growth is investigated using examples of en echelon vein arrays. The results indicate that vein initiation and growth may be tectonically driven (deformation induced) and is not entirely dependent on high internal fluid pressures. The frequency and spatial distribution of vein thickness and spacing in sedimentary rocks is analysed and the mechanical role of layer thickness on fracture development examined. Negative exponential and power-law (fractal) distributions are the most appropriate models to explain the range of vein thickness and spacing values. Departures from the power-law model are not simply sampling artifacts, but instead represent real differences in maximum vein thickness and spacing values, which can be attributed to the effects of fracture propagation through layered rocks. Observations of Tertiary mafic dykes from around Easdale, north-west Scotland, indicate that many variably oriented dykes share common sub-horizontal opening directions. The stress control of dyke intrusion is examined, with analysis of the stress ratio for individual dykes indicating local transtensional loading conditions. Examination of the structure of the chilled margins, flow lineations and the textural zonation of the dykes, suggest that magma solidified on the dyke walls as it continued to flow in the dyke interior. Measurements of dyke thickness variation and estimates of Reynolds numbers yield values well within the regime for laminar flow.

The modern world is populated with a great many physical and virtual IAMS (Identity Access Management Systems), where people need to maintain various login credentials. There is a key issue associated with this approach, which is the ability to remember this information; however, this can be circumvented to some degree through utilising an innovative approach of a single sign-in mechanism. Throughout the course of recent times, a number of different systems have been developed in order to deliver both virtual and physical IAMS. Moreover, in addition to a greater level of awareness to ensure interoperable virtual and physical IAMS are implemented, there is a pressing urgency for clear guidelines to be devised relating to the integration of: security, comprising identity; user experience, involving usability; and acceptability, encompassing accessibility. Very few models adhere to such guidelines; therefore, this paper seeks to deal with the pressing need to devise, implement and evaluate a model for acceptable user experience, enabling the successful integration of physical and virtual public services in an e-government context. In regard to the users’ assessment, which tests the suggested Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), it was observed that there is an indirect impact on behavioural intention to utilise a new prototype system (Ubiquitous Identity Access Management System ”UbIAMS” ) through various factors, namely effort expectancy, performance expectancy and social influence, as well as through items relating to acceptability and user experience

Clearance of acute infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) is associated with the chr19q13.13 region containing the rs368234815 (TT/ΔG) polymorphism. We fine-mapped this region to detect possible causal variants that may contribute to HCV clearance. First, we performed sequencing of IFNL1-IFNL4 region in 64 individuals sampled according to rs368234815 genotype: TT/clearance (N = 16) and ΔG/persistent (N = 15) (genotype-outcome concordant) or TT/persistent (N = 19) and ΔG/clearance (N = 14) (discordant). 25 SNPs had a difference in counts of alternative allele >5 between clearance and persistence individuals. Then, we evaluated those markers in an association analysis of HCV clearance conditioning on rs368234815 in two groups of European (692 clearance/1 025 persistence) and African ancestry (320 clearance/1 515 persistence) individuals. 10/25 variants were associated (P < 0.05) in the conditioned analysis leaded by rs4803221 (P value = 4.9 × 10 -04) and rs8099917 (P value = 5.5 × 10 -04). In the European ancestry group, individuals with the haplotype rs368234815ΔG/rs4803221C were 1.7× more likely to clear than those with the rs368234815ΔG/rs4803221G haplotype (P value = 3.6 × 10 -05). For another nearby SNP, the haplotype of rs368234815ΔG/rs8099917T was associated with HCV clearance compared to rs368234815ΔG/rs8099917G (OR: 1.6, P value = 1.8 × 10 -04). We identified four possible causal variants: rs368234815, rs12982533, rs10612351 and rs4803221. Our results suggest a main signal of association represented by rs368234815, with contributions from rs4803221, and/or nearby SNPs including rs8099917.