Sustaining environment through municipal solid waste: evidence from European Union economies

As part of their pursuit to succeed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), European Union (EU) countries have placed great importance on realizing SDG 11, which aims to create sustainable cities and communities. The relationship between environmental quality and municipal solid waste remains understudied despite its significant impact on achieving SDG-11. Consequently, this study seeks to peruse municipal solid waste, renewable energy consumption, human capital, and natural resources impact on load capacity as a comprehensive measure of environmental quality. By utilizing the CS-ARDL approach, this study reveals the inadequacy of municipal solid waste conversion in EU countries and highlights the favorable effect of human capital and renewable energy on enhancing environmental quality. Moreover, this study provides concrete evidence that natural resources contribute to environmental corruption. EU economies should adopt policies to bolster municipal solid waste conversion to improve environmental quality.

Microencapsulation of parathyroid cells via electric field and non-surgical transplantation approach

PURPOSE

Hypoparathyroidism is a rare disease with low PTH, mostly seen as a consequence of neck surgery. Current management is the prescription of calcium and vitamin D, but the definitive treatment is parathyroid allotransplantation, which frequently triggers an immune response, thus cannot achieve the expected success. To overcome this problem, encapsulation of allogeneic cells is the most promising method. By optimizing the standard alginate cell encapsulation technique with parathyroid cells under high-voltage application, the authors reduced the size of parathyroid-encapsulated beads and evaluated these samples in vitro and in vivo.

METHODS

Parathyroid cells were isolated, and standard-sized alginate macrobeads were prepared without any electrical field application, while microbeads in smaller sizes (< 500 µm), by the application of 13 kV. Bead morphologies, cell viability, and PTH secretion were evaluated in vitro for four weeks. For the in vivo part, beads were transplanted into Sprague-Dawley rats, and after retrieval, immunohistochemistry and PTH release were evaluated in addition to the assessment of cytokine/chemokine levels.

RESULTS

The viability of parathyroid cells in micro- and macrobeads did not differ significantly. However, the amount of in vitro PTH secretion from microencapsulated cells was significantly lower than that from macroencapsulated cells, although it increased throughout the incubation period. Immunohistochemistry of PTH staining in both of the encapsulated cells identified as positive after retrieval.

CONCLUSION

Contrary to the literature, a minimal in vivo immune response was developed for alginate-encapsulated parathyroid cells, regardless of bead size. Our findings suggest that injectable, micro-sized beads obtained using high-voltage may be a promising method for a non-surgical transplantation approach.

Proactive personality and job performance during cross-cultural service encounters: a moderated mediation model

Purpose

Drawing on the person-environment fit theory, in this paper the authors aim to propose and test a moderated mediation model that examines the relationships among proactive personality and job performance, cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors collected the multisource data from a total of 120 hotel service employees and the employees' immediate supervisors. The authors used the PROCESS, an SPSS macro, to conduct multiple regression analyses to test this moderated mediation model.

Findings

The results suggest that cultural intelligence mediates the relationship between proactive personality and job performance during cross-cultural service encounters. Furthermore, the indirect effect of proactive personality on job performance during cross-cultural service encounters via cultural intelligence is stronger for service employees who are high in emotional intelligence.

Practical implications

This study has several implications for hospitality management in terms of developing effective strategies to foster cultural and emotional intelligence of service employees and improve the employees' performance.

Originality/value

Considering the limited number of studies showing why, how and in which situations personality can enhance performance, this study contributes to the literature by revealing the effect of proactive personality on the performance of service employees through important constructs such as cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence.

The relationship between papillary thyroid cancer and triglyceride/glucose index, which is an indicator of insulin resistance

OBJECTIVE

The incidence of thyroid cancer and metabolic syndrome has been increasing at the same rate over the past few decades. We hypothesized that there would be a direct relationship between thyroid papillary cancer and triglyceride/glucose index (TyG).

PATIENTS AND METHODS

A total of 382 operated patients were divided into two groups: patients operated on for papillary thyroid cancer and for non-malignant reasons. Each patient's age, gender, operation times, presence of neck dissection, serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free triiodothyronine (FT3) and free thyroxine (FT4), fasting blood glucose and triglyceride levels were scanned retrospectively from the archive system.

RESULTS

TyG index was statistically higher in the malignant group. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves obtained for TyG levels at the time of diagnosis of thyroid papillary cancer were AUC: 0.608. The threshold value for TyG was 6,252. The sensitivity of this value was 62.8% and the specificity was 49.2%.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, we investigated the predictive effect of the TyG index in differentiating thyroid papillary carcinoma from non-malignant thyroid lesions. We concluded that the TgY index can be used to identify people at high risk of thyroid papillary cancer and to plan treatment.

The predictive value of platelet/mean platelet volume ratio in predicting colon diverticulitis relapse

OBJECTIVE

Diverticulitis is a health problem that has increased in frequency recently. It has a wide spectrum from simple inflammation to fecal peritonitis, sepsis and even mortality. Thus, it is important to predict diverticulitis, especially recurrent diverticulitis, and take measures to prevent it. In this study, we investigated the predictive value of the PLT/MPV ratio, which is an inflammation marker in predicting the recurrence of diverticulitis disease.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

In this study, 132 patients diagnosed with diverticulitis were analyzed retrospectively. Patients' gender, age, localization of diverticulitis, number of diverticula in computed tomography (CT), hospitalization status, length of hospitalization, control colonoscopies, polyps' number and localizations in colonoscopies, presence of malignancy, need for surgery, and recurrences were not reported. White blood cell (WBC), Neutrophil (NE), Lymphocyte (LY), Hemoglobin (Hb), PLT, MPV, Albumin, Creatine Kinase (CK) and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were examined. The patients were divided into two groups as those who did not relapse concerning diverticulitis and those who did, and statistical analysis was performed between the two groups about related parameters.

RESULTS

Among all patients, recurrence was seen in 11 (10.1%) patients. The patients were divided into two groups according to their recurrence status and statistical significance was sought between the data. The calculated PLT/MPV ratio of patients who did not relapse was 25.61±8.05 and 34.98±11.37 for those who had a relapse (p=0.006). The sensitivity for MPV was 81.8%, a specificity of 57.1% and a cut-off of 9.85. The cut-off value for PLT was 207.5 with 100% sensitivity and 33.7% specificity. A cut-off value of 25.11 was found for PLT/MPV with 100% sensitivity and 49% specificity.

CONCLUSIONS

PLT/MPV ratio was significantly higher in relapsed cases. Since it is easily accessible and inexpensive, it will guide physicians for diagnosis concerning early detection of relapse cases and initiation of appropriate treatment.

The effect of leader personality on follower behaviour

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating effect of the leader-member exchange (LMX) on the relationship between leader personality and follower attitudes and behaviours, including task performance, satisfaction with the leader and organisational citizenship behaviour.

Design/methodology/approach

Adopting a multifaceted perspective to examine the relationships among the research variables, data were collected from 67 leaders and 372 followers. To test the hypotheses, hierarchical linear modelling analyses were conducted.

Findings

The results indicate that leader extraversion is positively related to follower task performance and that leader agreeableness is positively related to follower organisational citizenship behaviour and satisfaction with leaders. Moreover, the results indicate that the quality of the LMX relationship partially mediated the positive relationship between leader extraversion and follower task performance and fully mediated the relationship between leader agreeableness and satisfaction with leader and organisational citizenship behaviour.

Practical implications

The findings of this study support the mediating role of the LMX relationship between leader personality and follower attitudes and behaviours. Hence, it is worthwhile to examine the effects of leader personality in an organisational context.

Originality/value

The originality of this study is that it focusses on the integration of leader personality, LMX, and follower attitudes and behaviours in a single study, providing a model that indicates the mediating role of LMX in the relationship between leader personality and follower attitudes and behaviours.

Leaders’ managerial assumptions and transformational leadership: the moderating role of gender

Purpose

Although McGregor’s Theory X and Y holds significant attention in literature, research on the managerial assumptions and leadership is very scarce. The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of a leader’s Theory X and Y managerial assumptions on follower perceptions of transformational leadership behaviors and the moderating role of the leader’s gender in this relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 108 leaders provided ratings of their Theory X and Y managerial assumptions; 398 followers then rated their leaders’ transformational leadership behavior. To test the hypotheses, moderated hierarchical regression analysis was conducted.

Findings

The results indicated that a leader’s Theory Y managerial assumptions are positively related to the followers’ ratings of transformational leadership behavior while a leader’s Theory X managerial assumptions are negatively related to the ratings of transformational leadership behavior. Furthermore, the relationship between Theory Y managerial assumptions and ratings of transformational leadership behavior are stronger for female leaders than male leaders.

Originality/value

This study provides important insights for leadership literature by depicting how cognitive mental schemas (i.e. Theory X and Y assumptions) and gender influence their transformational leadership behaviors.

The mediating effect of leader–member exchange on the relationship between Theory X and Y management styles and affective commitment: A multilevel analysis

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between McGregor's Theory X and Y management styles and affective commitment through the mediating mechanism of the leader–member exchange (LMX). Adopting a multilevel perspective to explain the complex relations among variables, data were collected from 56 supervisors and 173 subordinates from yacht building companies in Turkey. The results indicated that the Theory Y management style related positively to affective commitment and LMX. In addition, the results indicated that LMX partially mediated the relationship between the Theory Y management style and affective commitment. However, the Theory X management style had no relationships with either LMX or affective commitment. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

The correlation of neurophysiological findings with clinical and functional status in patients following traumatic nerve injury

In this study, we aimed to determine whether there is a correlation between the electrodiagnostic findings and the functional status, muscle strength and sensibility in patients with traumatic nerve injury to the wrists. We assessed 50 patients at a mean of 11.6 months (SD 5.85) (range 6-25) after nerve injury. Sensibility was assessed by monofilament testing. Motor function was evaluated by assessing the manual muscle grade of the abductor pollicis brevis and abductor digiti minimi muscles. Function was evaluated by the Sollerman Hand Function Test. The amplitudes of the compound muscle action potential and the sensory nerve action potential were determined by electroneuromyography. While the compound muscle action potential and sensory nerve action potential amplitudes had significant correlation with muscle grade and Semmes Weinstein Monofilament tests, there was no correlation with the functional scores.

Cost analysis and related factors in patients with traumatic hand injury

The aim of this study was to measure the direct and indirect costs and factors influencing these costs in patients presenting following traumatic hand injury. We assessed patients aged 18-65 years who were in work. Hand injury severity and functional status were assessed. Direct costs, including medical care expenses, and indirect costs, including lost productivity, were calculated. Seventy-nine patients of a mean age of 32 years were included. The mean direct cost for each patient was $1772 (47% of total cost), and the indirect cost was $1891 (53% of total cost). Injury severity, time to return to work, and hospitalization time were the main parameters of increased total cost in a linear regression analysis.