Developing a Typological Theory Using a Quantitative Approach: A Case of Information Security Deviant Behavior

Different from classification and taxonomy, typology meets the criteria of a theory and is a unique form of theory building. Typology is a good first step in exploring a research topic, and, therefore, we are concerned with building typological theories for underdeveloped topics with limited studies. We propose a four-step approach involving content analysis, multidimensional scaling, judgmental analysis, and empirical testing to guide researchers in developing typological theories in their domains of interest using a quantitative approach that rides on empirical methods and industry wisdom. Previous research in information security has paid little attention to employees’ deviant behavior in the workplace. We, therefore, built a typology of information security deviant behavior as an example to illustrate the theory development process. We discuss the theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of this study

Factors for Sustainable Online Learning in Higher Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected educational institutions and instructors in an unprecedented way. The majority of educational establishments were forced to take their courses online within a very short period of time, and both instructors and students had to learn to navigate the digital array of courses without much training. Our study examined factors that affect students’ attitude toward online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is different from other online learning studies where online courses are mostly a method of choice, with suitable support from institutions and expectation from instructors and students, rather than a contingency. Under this specific environment, we utilized an online survey to collect students’ feedback from eleven universities across Hong Kong. Using partial least squares for analysis on the 400 valid samples we received, we found that peer interactions and course design have the most salient impact on students’ attitude, whereas interactions with instructors has no effect at all on students’ attitude. Furthermore, we also provide suggestions on using the existing technologies purchased during COVID-19 for a more sustainable learning environment going forward

Modelling economic growth, carbon emissions, and fossil fuel consumption in China: Cointegration and multivariate causality

Most authors apply the Granger causality-VECM (vector error correction model), and Toda–Yamamoto procedures to investigate the relationships among fossil fuel consumption, CO emissions, and economic growth, though they ignore the group joint effects and nonlinear behaviour among the variables. In order to circumvent the limitations and bridge the gap in the literature, this paper combines cointegration and linear and nonlinear Granger causality in multivariate settings to investigate the long-run equilibrium, short-run impact, and dynamic causality relationships among economic growth, CO emissions, and fossil fuel consumption in China from 1965–2016. Using the combination of the newly developed econometric techniques, we obtain many novel empirical findings that are useful for policy makers. For example, cointegration and causality analysis imply that increasing CO emissions not only leads to immediate economic growth, but also future economic growth, both linearly and nonlinearly. In addition, the findings from cointegration and causality analysis in multivariate settings do not support the argument that reducing CO emissions and/or fossil fuel consumption does not lead to a slowdown in economic growth in China. The novel empirical findings are useful for policy makers in relation to fossil fuel consumption, CO emissions, and economic growth. Using the novel findings, governments can make better decisions regarding energy conservation and emission reductions policies without undermining the pace of economic growth in the long run

A internacionalização de empresas portuguesas: estudo de caso

Num contexto de globalização, os mercados externos apresentam-se, cada vez mais, como imprescindíveis à sobrevivência das empresas. Com efeito, as oportunidades e ameaças que a globalização envolve são determinantes para que as empresas procurem novas formas de manter e aumentar o seu desempenho e sustentabilidade. A internacionalização assume, por isso, primordial importância para a competitividade das mesmas. Este processo envolve a definição de estratégias operacionais que resultarão em importantes fluxos financeiros, de produtos e de conhecimento para as organizações. Em Portugal e, após a recente crise económica, o tema da internacionalização, sobretudo para as Pequenas e Médias Empresas (PME), tornou-se fundamental para a sua sustentabilidade. O processo de internacionalização é incremental para a grande maioria das empresas portuguesas. O investimento externo surge como efeito de uma experiência de exportação. Considerando que um processo de internacionalização é um processo complexo, envolvendo riscos elevados, o objetivo deste trabalho será estudar o processo de internacionalização de duas empresas portuguesas e uma ibérica. Seguindo uma metodologia qualitativa, assente no estudo de caso, pretende-se perceber o porquê e como decorreu o seu processo de internacionalização, seus objetivos e estratégias envolvidas. Dado que, ao analisar o processo de internacionalização de uma empresa, é importante confrontar modelos teóricos com a prática empresarial, procuraremos confrontar e verificar a validade das teorias e literatura relevantes com os casos em análise. De acordo com os resultados obtidos foi possível concluir que não existe, para as empresas em estudo, um modo de entrada único, existindo recurso à utilização de múltiplos modos de entrada, identificável com o modelo não sequencial. A vontade de crescimento revelou-se como a motivação em comum e mais referida pelas empresas, assim como as barreiras culturais para os principais entraves à internacionalização. Ambas as empresas recorrem a apoios externos, mas com diferentes finalidades e as mesmas revelaram-se ainda ricas na variedade de informações a que nos foi dado acesso.In a context of globalization, external markets are becoming more and more indispensable to the survival of companies. Indeed, the opportunities and threats that globalization entails are crucial for companies to seek new ways to maintain and increase their performance and sustainability. Internationalization is therefore of prime importance for their competitiveness. This process involves the definition of operational strategies that will result in important financial, product and knowledge flows for organizations. In Portugal, and after the recent economic crisis, the theme of internationalization, especially for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), has become fundamental for its sustainability. The internationalization process is incremental for the great majority of Portuguese companies. External investment is the result of an export experience. Considering that an internationalization process is a complex process, involving high risks, the aim of this work will be to study the internationalization process of two Portuguese companies and one Iberian. Following a qualitative methodology, based on case study, we intend to understand why and how its internationalization process occurred, its goals and the strategies involved. Given that, when analyzing the process of internationalization of a company, it is important to confront theoretical models with business practice, we will try to confront and verify the validity of relevant theories and literature with the cases under analysis. According to the results obtained, it was possible to conclude that for the companies under study there is no single input mode, and there is a use of multiple input modes, identifiable with the non-sequential model. The will to growth has proved to be the common motivation and more mentioned by the companies, as well as the cultural barriers to the main obstacles to internationalization. Both companies rely on external support, but for different purposes and they have proved rich in the variety of information to which we have been granted access

Protein-coding variants implicate novel genes related to lipid homeostasis contributing to body-fat distribution.

Body-fat distribution is a risk factor for adverse cardiovascular health consequences. We analyzed the association of body-fat distribution, assessed by waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index, with 228,985 predicted coding and splice site variants available on exome arrays in up to 344,369 individuals from five major ancestries (discovery) and 132,177 European-ancestry individuals (validation). We identified 15 common (minor allele frequency, MAF ≥5%) and nine low-frequency or rare (MAF <5%) coding novel variants. Pathway/gene set enrichment analyses identified lipid particle, adiponectin, abnormal white adipose tissue physiology and bone development and morphology as important contributors to fat distribution, while cross-trait associations highlight cardiometabolic traits. In functional follow-up analyses, specifically in Drosophila RNAi-knockdowns, we observed a significant increase in the total body triglyceride levels for two genes (DNAH10 and PLXND1). We implicate novel genes in fat distribution, stressing the importance of interrogating low-frequency and protein-coding variants

Assessing associations between the AURKAHMMR-TPX2-TUBG1 functional module and breast cancer risk in BRCA1/2 mutation carriers

While interplay between BRCA1 and AURKA-RHAMM-TPX2-TUBG1 regulates mammary epithelial polarization, common genetic variation in HMMR (gene product RHAMM) may be associated with risk of breast cancer in BRCA1 mutation carriers. Following on these observations, we further assessed the link between the AURKA-HMMR-TPX2-TUBG1 functional module and risk of breast cancer in BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation carriers. Forty-one single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped in 15,252 BRCA1 and 8,211 BRCA2 mutation carriers and subsequently analyzed using a retrospective likelihood appr

Atlas of prostate cancer heritability in European and African-American men pinpoints tissue-specific regulation.

Although genome-wide association studies have identified over 100 risk loci that explain ∼33% of familial risk for prostate cancer (PrCa), their functional effects on risk remain largely unknown. Here we use genotype data from 59,089 men of European and African American ancestries combined with cell-type-specific epigenetic data to build a genomic atlas of single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) heritability in PrCa. We find significant differences in heritability between variants in prostate-relevant epigenetic marks defined in normal versus tumour tissue as well as between tissue and cell lines. The majority of SNP heritability lies in regions marked by H3k27 acetylation in prostate adenoc7arcinoma cell line (LNCaP) or by DNaseI hypersensitive sites in cancer cell lines. We find a high degree of similarity between European and African American ancestries suggesting a similar genetic architecture from common variation underlying PrCa risk. Our findings showcase the power of integrating functional annotation with genetic data to understand the genetic basis of PrCa.This work was supported by NIH fellowship F32 GM106584 (AG), NIH grants R01 MH101244(A.G.), R01 CA188392 (B.P.), U01 CA194393(B.P.), R01 GM107427 (M.L.F.), R01 CA193910 (M.L.F./M.P.) and Prostate Cancer Foundation Challenge Award (M.L.F./M.P.). This study makes use of data generated by the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. A full list of the investigators who contributed to the generation of the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium data is available on www.wtccc.org.uk. Funding for the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium project was provided by the Wellcome Trust under award 076113. This study makes use of data generated by the UK10K Consortium. A full list of the investigators who contributed to the generation of the data is available online (http://www.UK10K.org). The PRACTICAL consortium was supported by the following grants: European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme grant agreement n° 223175 (HEALTH-F2-2009-223175), Cancer Research UK Grants C5047/A7357, C1287/A10118, C5047/A3354, C5047/A10692, C16913/A6135 and The National Institute of Health (NIH) Cancer Post-Cancer GWAS initiative Grant: no. 1 U19 CA 148537-01 (the GAME-ON initiative); Cancer Research UK (C1287/A10118, C1287/A 10710, C12292/A11174, C1281/A12014, C5047/A8384, C5047/A15007 and C5047/A10692), the National Institutes of Health (CA128978) and Post-Cancer GWAS initiative (1U19 CA148537, 1U19 CA148065 and 1U19 CA148112—the GAME-ON initiative), the Department of Defense (W81XWH-10-1-0341), A Linneus Centre (Contract ID 70867902), Swedish Research Council (grant no K2010-70X-20430-04-3), the Swedish Cancer Foundation (grant no 09-0677), grants RO1CA056678, RO1CA082664 and RO1CA092579 from the US National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health; US National Cancer Institute (R01CA72818); support from The National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia (126402, 209057, 251533, 396414, 450104, 504700, 504702, 504715, 623204, 940394 and 614296); NIH grants CA63464, CA54281 and CA098758; US National Cancer Institute (R01CA128813, PI: J.Y. Park); Bulgarian National Science Fund, Ministry of Education and Science (contract DOO-119/2009; DUNK01/2–2009; DFNI-B01/28/2012); Cancer Research UK grants [C8197/A10123] and [C8197/A10865]; grant code G0500966/75466; NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme (projects 96/20/06 and 96/20/99); Cancer Research UK grant number C522/A8649, Medical Research Council of England grant number G0500966, ID 75466 and The NCRI, UK; The US Dept of Defense award W81XWH-04-1-0280; Australia Project Grant [390130, 1009458] and Enabling Grant [614296 to APCB]; the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (Project Grant [PG7] and Research infrastructure grant [to APCB]); NIH grant R01 CA092447; Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (P30 CA68485); Cancer Research UK [C490/A10124] and supported by the UK National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre at the University of Cambridge; Competitive Research Funding of the Tampere University Hospital (9N069 and X51003); Award Number P30CA042014 from the National Cancer Institute.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/0.1038/ncomms1097

Comprehensive molecular characterization of gastric adenocarcinoma

Gastric cancer is a leading cause of cancer deaths, but analysis of its molecular and clinical characteristics has been complicated by histological and aetiological heterogeneity. Here we describe a comprehensive molecular evaluation of 295 primary gastric adenocarcinomas as part of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project. We propose a molecular classification dividing gastric cancer into four subtypes: tumours positive for Epstein–Barr virus, which display recurrent PIK3CA mutations, extreme DNA hypermethylation, and amplification of JAK2, CD274 (also known as PD-L1) and PDCD1LG2 (also knownasPD-L2); microsatellite unstable tumours, which show elevated mutation rates, including mutations of genes encoding targetable oncogenic signalling proteins; genomically stable tumours, which are enriched for the diffuse histological variant and mutations of RHOA or fusions involving RHO-family GTPase-activating proteins; and tumours with chromosomal instability, which show marked aneuploidy and focal amplification of receptor tyrosine kinases. Identification of these subtypes provides a roadmap for patient stratification and trials of targeted therapies