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The literature of neuroimaging meta‐analysis has been thriving for over a decade. A majority of them were coordinate‐based meta‐analyses, particularly the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) approach. A meta‐evaluation of these meta‐analyses was performed to qualitatively evaluate their design and reporting standards. The publications listed from the BrainMap website were screened. Six hundred and three ALE papers published during 2010–2019 were included and analysed. For reporting standards, most of the ALE papers reported their total number of Papers involved and mentioned the inclusion/exclusion criteria on Paper selection. However, most papers did not describe how data redundancy was avoided when multiple related Experiments were reported within one paper. The most prevalent repeated‐measures correction methods were voxel‐level FDR (54.4%) and cluster‐level FWE (33.8%), with the latter quickly replacing the former since 2016. For study characteristics, sample size in terms of number of Papers included per ALE paper and number of Experiments per analysis seemed to be stable over the decade. One‐fifth of the surveyed ALE papers failed to meet the recommendation of having >17 Experiments per analysis. For data sharing, most of them did not provide input and output data. In conclusion, the field has matured well in terms of rising dominance of cluster‐level FWE correction, and slightly improved reporting on elimination of data redundancy and providing input data. The provision of Data and Code availability statements and flow chart of literature screening process, as well as data submission to BrainMap, should be more encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To explore and summarise published literature with regards to secondments to clinical research and to identify the gaps in research to inform further work. Design: Systematic scoping review. Method: A scoping review was undertaken in accordance with the Patterns, Advances, Gaps, Evidence and Research framework. Databases searched included CINAHL, PubMed, Medline and Embase. Inclusion/exclusion criteria were applied by two independent reviewers. Two reviewers independently retrieved full‐text studies for inclusion and applied the framework as a tool for synthesising Patterns, Advances, Gaps, Evidence and Research recommendations. Results: Six papers and one abstract published between 2003 and 2018 were included. All secondees (n = 34) were released from NHS posts, with secondments (where specified) ranging in duration from 0.25 to 2 years and for 40%–100% of their working hours. All seven papers reported benefits for personal and professional development, predominantly in the form of personal reflections. Few described involvement with research delivery teams. Conclusion: Published initiatives vary in nature and lack standardised reporting and measurement of impact. Further research is required to identify benefits at a departmental or organisational level, the facilitators for setting up secondments and the application of knowledge gained from secondment opportunities. Implications for the Profession: Undertaking a research secondment is reported to offer professional and personal benefit for clinical staff. Research secondments are one way in which a research culture can practically be embedded within clinical settings. Impact: This scoping review identified a lack of published empirical research seeking to understand research secondments as a tool to enhance research and evidence engagement. Although there is a suggestion that secondments could positively impact staff retention, there is limited evidence about the benefit for the organisation or for patient care. These findings have implications for staff, managers and their organisations. Reporting Method: The PRISMA‐ScR guidelines were used to guide reporting. No Patient or Public Contribution: This was not relevant to the research design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author discusses several suggestions on how to select a research paper for discussion-based seminar courses including group appeal, type of paper, and analytical approach. He cites that one must consider the interest and specialties of the audience. He states that empirical papers assess topics broadly, facilitate better discussion, and generate meager interaction. Moreover, research papers which are simple, clear, and concise yield productive discussions.

This study finds a bibliometric regularity in the finance literature that the number of authors publishing n papers is about l/nc of those publishing one paper. We find that the finance literature conforms very well to the inverse square law (c = 2) if data are taken from a large collection of journals. When applied to individual finance journals, we find that values of c range from 1.95 to 3.26. We also find that top-rated journals have higher concentrations among their contributors. This implies that the phenomenon "success breeds success" is more common in higher quality publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Projecting future trends is emerging as a key focus of community‐based climate vulnerability assessments. In these mostly qualitative studies, understanding of current vulnerability processes is used as a basis for identifying who and what are vulnerable to future changes, where, and why, and characterizing the key drivers of vulnerability and how they might change. Few, if any, of these studies engage with approaches for validating findings, reflecting the difficulties of validating mostly qualitative projections of highly uncertain futures, absence of directly measurable vulnerability outcomes, and lack of data on vulnerability drivers. Given the challenges of projecting future trends, this absence undermines trust in such work and limits opportunities to learn. This paper illustrates, with examples, how validation can be incorporated into the study design of community‐based climate vulnerability assessments through: (a) examination of retrospective projections to assess projection skill, (b) evaluation of projections made for future time periods which have since passed for consistency with what actually happened, (c) comparison of projections with empirical research that attempts to understand and constrain the effects of climate change using observed effects of weather variation, and (d) incorporation of demonstrated "best practices" into projection development, such as acknowledgment of areas of uncertainty, integration of diverse viewpoints, and utilization of multiple sources of information. Plain Language Summary: Projections are widely used in a variety of fields to anticipate, identify, and characterize how the future may evolve, and have been a central feature in climate change research within the natural sciences. Their development and use to understand if and how communities are vulnerable to climate change, however, is more recent, with such work describing potential future climate vulnerabilities and the pathways leading to them, and are mostly developed within the social sciences. This paper argues that such "community‐based" work needs to look to the experience of other fields which have a wealth of experience of how to build trust and legitimacy into projection development processes. One such way is through projection validation, which in the context of largely qualitative community‐based work could include continually evaluating how well projections are performing as the future unfolds; evaluation of projections made for future time periods which have since passed for consistency with what actually happened and ensuring demonstrated "best practices" are incorporated into projection development, such as acknowledgment of areas of uncertainty, integration of diverse viewpoints, and utilization of multiple sources of information. Key Points: Projecting climate vulnerability at a community‐level is a rapidly growing area of researchThe importance of validating vulnerability projections is increasingly recognized in the literature although underutilized in practice, particularly within qualitative researchThere are opportunities to build external and internal validation approaches into processes through which community vulnerability projections are developed [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To capture and retain healthcare staff in postgraduate courses relevant to individual career aspirations, service requirements and continuous practice development (CPD) within an English UK university. Design: Two virtual career clinics for postgraduate practitioners to engage in CPD offers within the university. An online post‐enrolment online survey to explore their experiences of engagement with the university. Methods: Mixed: qualitative and quantitative methods. Engaging 10 participants attended the career clinics, and 42 participants with an online survey. Results: The career clinics were well received by participants who mapped CPD requirements and individual career aspirations. The surveys exposed challenges with marketing and enrolment; however, these were mitigated with support. Four recommendations are presented within this paper applicable to the international postgraduate education of all health practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The implementation science literature acknowledges a need for engagement of key stakeholders when designing, delivering and evaluating implementation work. To date, the literature reports minimal or focused stakeholder engagement, where stakeholders are engaged in either barrier identification and/or barrier prioritisation. This paper begins to answer calls from the literature for the development of tools and guidance to support comprehensive stakeholder engagement in implementation research and practice. The paper describes the systematic development of the Implementation‐STakeholder Engagement Model (I‐STEM) in the context of an international, large‐scale empirical implementation study (ImpleMentAll) aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of a tailored implementation toolkit. The I‐STEM is a sensitising tool that defines key considerations and activities for undertaking stakeholder engagement activities across an implementation process. Methods: In‐depth, semistructured interviews and observations were conducted with implementers who were tailoring implementation strategies to integrate and embed internet‐based cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT) services in 12 routine mental health care organisations in nine countries in Europe and Australia. The analytical process was informed by principles of first‐ and third‐generation Grounded Theory, including constant comparative method. Results: We conducted 55 interviews and observed 19 implementation‐related activities (e.g., team meetings and technical support calls). The final outcome of our analysis is expressed in an initial version of the I‐STEM, consisting of five interrelated concepts: engagement objectives, stakeholder mapping, engagement approaches, engagement qualities and engagement outcomes. Engagement objectives are goals that implementers plan to achieve by working with stakeholders in the implementation process. Stakeholder mapping involves identifying a range of organisations, groups or people who may be instrumental in achieving the engagement objectives. Engagement approaches define the type of work that is undertaken with stakeholders to achieve the engagement objectives. Engagement qualities define the logistics of the engagement approach. Lastly, every engagement activity may result in a range of engagement outcomes. Conclusion: The I‐STEM represents potential avenues for substantial stakeholder engagement activity across key phases of an implementation process. It provides a conceptual model for the planning, delivery, evaluation and reporting of stakeholder engagement activities. The I‐STEM is nonprescriptive and highlights the importance of a flexible, iterative approach to stakeholder engagement. It is developmental and will require application and validation across a range of implementation activities. Patient or Public Contribution: Patient contribution to ImpleMentAll trial was facilitated by GAMIAN‐Europe at all stages—from grant development to dissemination. GAMIAN‐Europe brings together a wide variety of patient representation organisations (local, regional and national) from almost all European countries. GAMIAN‐Europe was involved in pilot testing the ItFits‐toolkit and provided their views on the various aspects, including stakeholder engagement. Patients were also represented in the external advisory board providing support and advice on the design, conduct and interpretation of the wider project, including the development of the ItFits‐toolkit. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03652883. Retrospectively registered on 29 August 2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Conservation Biology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper examines the application of American pragmatism by systems and OR scholars who attempt to understand the interactions between consultants and clients at a detailed level. Specifically it examines whether pragmatism can be considered to be a practice theory by examining the empirical evidence of published case studies. A search of mainly OR journals identified 12 published papers containing detailed descriptions of behaviour in systems and OR interventions. On closer examination, six were found to be based on pragmatism through their reliance on boundary theory; five utilised grounded theory; the remaining paper utilised unbounded systems theory, which is based explicitly on pragmatism. Nine conclusions are reached which summarise the progress to date of utilising pragmatism‐as‐a‐practice‐theory and three which point to the potential for future research, collaboration and application in the systems/OR domain. The paper addresses the perceived lack of empirical application of pragmatism to everyday affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the full‐sample panel data from 23 provinces and cities in China from 2013 to 2020, this paper studies the influences of environmental regulations on regional carbon emission efficiency in China under the background of opening carbon emission trading after dividing the country into high, medium, and low emission areas with emission quantity as the classification standard and constructing a regression model. The experiment reveals that the environmental regulation strength and carbon dioxide emission efficiency are positively correlated with each other in the first place. Second, there exists a positive correlation between environmental regulation strength and carbon dioxide emission efficiency in different emission regions, while in terms of the impact of environmental regulation on carbon emission efficiency, it influences the medium emission areas most, followed by low emission areas, and the high emission areas to the least. Then, current domestic environmental regulation is effective and plays a positive role in improving carbon emission efficiency and promoting the development of a low‐carbon economy in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the fragmented ownership of complementary intellectual property (IP) rights affects firms' acquisition behaviour. We theorize that as the ownership of complementary IP rights fragments, the rate at which a focal firm engages in technology acquisitions will increase. Our predictions suggest that firms will expand their IP portfolios through acquisitions as a strategy to continue innovating when the ownership over strategic IP becomes exceedingly spread among technology holders. Furthermore, we propose that this positive relationship between fragmentation and acquisitions will be stronger for firms whose patent portfolios hold relatively less value compared to their peers, owing primarily to their diminished control over strategic IP. Using a unique longitudinal dataset from the biopharmaceutical industry, we find empirical support for our hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors reflect on the high quality review process of the "Journal of Supply Chain Management (JSCM)." They emphasize that the reviewer has an impact on the career of authors, the editorial team, and the quality of research in their field. They point out several characteristics of a high quality review which include providing a brief summary of the paper, conveying a constructive attitude, and giving a list of specific comments on weaknesses and concerns regarding the manuscript.

From a survey of the papers published in leading accounting journals in 2014, we find that accounting researchers conduct significance testing almost exclusively at a conventional level of significance, without considering key factors such as the sample size or power of a test. We present evidence that a vast majority of the accounting studies favour large or massive sample sizes and conduct significance tests with the power extremely close to or equal to one. As a result, statistical inference is severely biased towards Type I error, frequently rejecting the true null hypotheses. Under the 'p‐value less than 0.05' criterion for statistical significance, more than 90% of the surveyed papers report statistical significance. However, under alternative criteria, only 40% of the results are statistically significant. We propose that substantial changes be made to the current practice of significance testing for more credible empirical research in accounting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article refers to research on error patterns in accounting populations and comments on "An Empirical Study of Error Characteristics in Audit Populations," a study by John G. Ramage, Abba M. Krieger, and Leslie L. Spero. The issue is research methods including a situation where the auditor's selection of objectives, sampling technique, and basic data could result in statistical bias and self-fulfilling expectations. Understatement and overstatement errors in inventory, the distinction between bookkeeping and management errors, and the study parameters of fraction of overstatement errors, the relative magnitude of error, and the contamination error are mentioned.

In this paper, we document regularities in trading patterns of individual and institutional investors related to the day of the week. We find a relative increase in trading activity by individuals on Mondays. In addition, there is a tendency for individuals to increase the number of sell transactions relative to buy transactions, which might explain at least part of the weekend effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to provide a test of a state-dependent multinomial model of intertemporal changes in the term structure of interest rates. The theoretical background for the model comes from Ho and Lee (1986). The current paper extends their model in several significant ways. First, we perform diagnostic tests on the data to demonstrate that the empirical results reject a binomial model in favor of a trinomial one. After theoretically deriving the appropriate trinomial model, the current paper extends their model to allow for state-dependent shifts which are determined by the set of ex ante observable state variables. The methodology for the study utilizes OLS regressions to identify the exogenous explanatory variables which drive the hypothesized trinomial process of term structure evolution. The empirical tests indicate that the set of state variables explains a significant portion of the variability in the shifts of the term structure over time. The model also identifies and quantifies a set of variables which impact on changes in the term structure of interest rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper is on UK Code compliance and the contests and confusions that have surrounded its principle of 'comply or explain'. In contrast to many agency theory‐informed studies, the paper suggests that visible compliance with the Code cannot itself be taken as a reliable proxy for board effectiveness. Instead, drawing upon Foucault's account of governance as subjection, we argue that, as a form of board accountability, visible compliance can only support the Code's primary objective of establishing norms which shape the conduct of directors within boards. The contests and confusions as to the meaning of comply or explain are then explored in terms of the challenge regulators have faced, throughout the subsequent life of the Code, in respecting the freedom of action of directors, whilst nevertheless seeking to influence how this is exercised. The paper first explores three key moments in the evolution of the UK Code: the initial Cadbury committee two‐page 'Code of Best Practice' in 1992, the more prescriptive 2003 post‐Enron changes to the UK Combined Code following the Higgs review, and the retreat from such prescription in the 2010 changes to the Code. This is complemented by drawing on qualitative empirical research to describe three very different 'subject positions'—refusal, cynical distance, and willing embrace—which directors have come to adopt in response to the Code. The paper concludes by pointing to the very different consequences for actual board effectiveness implied by these contrasting, but largely invisible, responses to the Code. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Leaf traits are central to plant function, and key variables in ecosystem models. However recently published global trait maps, made by applying statistical or machine‐learning techniques to large compilations of trait and environmental data, differ substantially from one another. This paper aims to demonstrate the potential of an alternative approach, based on eco‐evolutionary optimality theory, to yield predictions of spatio‐temporal patterns in leaf traits that can be independently evaluated. Innovation: Global patterns of community‐mean specific leaf area (SLA) and photosynthetic capacity (Vcmax) are predicted from climate via existing optimality models. Then leaf nitrogen per unit area (Narea) and mass (Nmass) are inferred using their (previously derived) empirical relationships to SLA and Vcmax. Trait data are thus reserved for testing model predictions across sites. Temporal trends can also be predicted, as consequences of environmental change, and compared to those inferred from leaf‐level measurements and/or remote‐sensing methods, which are an increasingly important source of information on spatio‐temporal variation in plant traits. Main conclusions: Model predictions evaluated against site‐mean trait data from > 2,000 sites in the Plant Trait database yielded R2 = 73% for SLA, 38% for Nmass and 28% for Narea. Declining species‐level Nmass, and increasing community‐level SLA, have both been recently reported and were both correctly predicted. Leaf‐trait mapping via optimality theory holds promise for macroecological applications, including an improved understanding of community leaf‐trait responses to environmental change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this brief comment on , we identify two shortcomings in their paper on the Australian water and wastewater sectors. First, the empirical literature survey in the paper is deficient because it does not adequately cover the Australian scholarly work in the area. This neglect inter alia negates some of the recommendations for further research offered by . Second, the paper has overlooked important work on urban water markets in Australia undertaken by the Productivity Commission. This has also served to undermine some of the conclusions drawn in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines caregiving for sick older family members in the context of socio‐economic transformations in rural China, combining empirical investigation with normative inquiry. The empirical part of this paper is based on a case study, taken from fieldwork in a rural Chinese hospital, of a son who took care of his hospitalized mother. This empirical study highlighted family members' weiqu (sense of unfairness)—a mental status from experiencing mistreatment and oppression in family care, yet with constrained power to explicitly protest or make care‐related choices. Underpinning people's weiqu and constrained choice, as informed by the conception of structural injustice, is the impact of unjust social structures, organized by unfavourable norms, discriminatory social policies and institutions targeting rural populations. By restraining individual choices and capacities in supporting health care for aging populations, these unjust structures create additional difficulties for and discriminations against rural families and their older members. Some policy recommendations are proposed to mitigate structural injustice so as to empower families and promote care for older people in rural settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advocates abandoning null hypothesis statistical tests (NHST) in favour of reporting confidence intervals. The case against NHST, which has been made repeatedly in multiple disciplines and is growing in awareness and acceptance, is introduced and discussed. Accounting as an empirical research discipline appears to be the last of the research communities to face up to the inherent problems of significance test use and abuse. The paper encourages adoption of a meta-analysis approach which allows for the inclusion of replication studies in the assessment of evidence. This approach requires abandoning the typical NHST process and its reliance on p-values. However, given that NHST has deep roots and wide 'social acceptance' in the empirical testing community, modifications to NHST are suggested so as to partly counter the weakness of this statistical testing method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the sample of Chinese listed firms from 2003 to 2019, this paper investigated the herd behaviour in cross-border mergers and acquisition (CB M&A) decisions using ordinary least-squares (OLS) and feasible generalised least squares (FGLS) models. It was found that the Chinese listed firm CB M&A location decisions were similar to the choices made by other firms in the same industry in the previous year, with the bellwether firms in high industry market positions being the key reference objects. The herd behaviour was found to be more pronounced when the firms were younger and smaller, there was strong internal industry competition, estranged bilateral political distances, and poor host country governance. The quantification of the economic consequences of the herd behaviour revealed a negative effect on the short-term performances after the CB M&As but improved firm performances over the long term, with these improvements being more significant when the herd behaviour was led by bellwether firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the sample of Chinese listed firms from 2003 to 2019, this paper investigated the herd behaviour in cross‐border mergers and acquisition (CB M&A) decisions using ordinary least‐squares (OLS) and feasible generalised least squares (FGLS) models. It was found that the Chinese listed firm CB M&A location decisions were similar to the choices made by other firms in the same industry in the previous year, with the bellwether firms in high industry market positions being the key reference objects. The herd behaviour was found to be more pronounced when the firms were younger and smaller, there was strong internal industry competition, estranged bilateral political distances, and poor host country governance. The quantification of the economic consequences of the herd behaviour revealed a negative effect on the short‐term performances after the CB M&As but improved firm performances over the long term, with these improvements being more significant when the herd behaviour was led by bellwether firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does neuronal activity give rise to cognitive capacities? To address this question, neuroscientists hypothesize about what neurons "represent," "encode," or "compute," and test these hypotheses empirically. This process is similar to the assessment of hypotheses in other fields of science and as such is subject to the same limitations and difficulties that have been discussed at length by philosophers of science. In this paper, we highlight an additional difficulty in the process of empirical assessment of hypotheses that is unique to the cognitive sciences. We argue that, unlike in other scientific fields, comparing hypotheses according to the extent to which they explain or predict empirical data can lead to absurd results. Other considerations, which are perhaps more subjective, must be taken into account. We focus on one such consideration, which is the purposeful function of the neurons as part of a biological system. We believe that progress in neuroscience critically depends on properly addressing this difficulty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the relationship between economic inequality and the distribution of votes among political parties, namely political polarization and fracturalization. Economic inequality is captured by the Gini index, whereas new measures of political polarization and fracturalization are offered. This is the first paper to calculate political polarization and fracturalization indices by a methodology previously used for ethnic, religious and linguistic polarization and fracturalization. Empirical analysis uses data for 17 European countries and for three decades, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. It is shown that increased income inequality increases political party polarization and reduces fracturalization and that political party polarization decreases with increased GDP per capita. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Business Strategy & the Environment (John Wiley & Sons, Inc) is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper, I will share findings from a qualitative study that offers a thematic analysis of 76 interviews with Muslim patients and families as well as doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, chaplains and community faith leaders across the United Kingdom. The data show that for many Muslims, Islam—its texts and lived practice—is of central importance when they are deliberating about death and dying. Central to these deliberations are virtues rooted within Islamic theology and ethics, the traditions of adab (virtue) and aqhlaq (proper conduct). Themes analysed include theological and moral understandings around the virtues of hope and acceptance. The study provides an analysis of these themes in relation to the experiences of Muslim patients and families arriving at meaning making around death and dying and how this interfaces with their interaction with biomedicine and healthcare. The study shows that the juxtaposition of different values and moral frameworks require careful negotiation when Muslim patients and families encounter the healthcare system. The study also describes how healthcare professionals and staff of other faiths and no faith encounter Muslim beliefs and practices, and the challenges they face in interpreting virtues and values rooted in faith, especially when these are perceived to be mutually opposed or inconsistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a discussion of the paper "On the Usefulness of Earnings and Earnings Research: Lessons and Directions from Two Decades of Empirical Research," by Baruch Lev concerning the usefulness of earnings and earnings research. It states that earnings numbers were useful in several areas, such as equity capital markets, debt capital markets, labor markets, material and product markets, and political markets. It comments on variations in security prices even in the absence of company-specific information events that could help explain market-wide or industry-wide explanatory variables.

This paper provides some new insights about approximate factor structures, as defined by Chamberlain and Rothschild [2], and their implications for empirical tests. First, we show that any economy that satisfies an approximate factor structure can be transformed, in a manner that does not alter the characteristics of investor portfolios, into an economy that satisfies an exact factor structure, as defined by Ross [9]. Second, we show that principal components analysis represents just one of many methods of forming groups of well-diversified portfolios with no idiosyncratic risk in large samples. Correct factor loadings will be obtained by regressing security returns on any group of these portfolios. Our interpretations of the Chamberlain and Rothschild results also provide additional insights into the testability of the Arbitrage Pricing Theory. We show that securities cannot be repackaged to hide factors in the manner suggested by Shanken [10] without the variance of some of the repackaged securities approaching infinity in large economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the debate on services-led growth in which services are variously portrayed as a substitute for or as a leading or lagging complement to manufacturing. Following a survey of related empirical studies, it applies growth decomposition methods to data for 18 countries in Asia and Latin America for 1980-2005, focusing on manufacturing and services that make intensive use of information and communication technology. By grouping the countries into four categories according to aggregate labour productivity and employment growth, the authors seek to identify common structural characteristics of better and worse performing countries. They also consider the viability of the services-led growth path in India in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to make recommendations for the procedural optimization of the Future Search Conference design on the basis of empirical evidence from two case study conferences in Germany and the United Kingdom. The paper presents the major criticisms that have been raised against the step-by-step conference design in the theoretical literature and contrasts these with the empirical findings of two stakeholder-based evaluations. The author draws attention to a number of weaknesses in the conference opening, the common ground phase and the action planning phase of the Future Search Conference design and makes proposals for design changes. The paper suggests that a systematic and stakeholder-oriented evaluation should be part of interventions like Future Search Conferences. The paper concludes with a reminder that the political context and local power relations are a key variable in determining success or failure of a Future Search conference. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines promising avenues for empirical research on quantified control in healthcare work. A review of key insights from accounting, organization studies, and the emergent sociology of quantification indicates that numbers are productive as well as deceptive and seductive, that they enable control but can be evaded, and that they typically have unintended effects. It remains to be further explored how multiple forms of measurement and quantified control play out in everyday healthcare work. Other questions worth probing concern the limits and capabilities of numbers as a shared language, the differential and disciplinary effects of numbers on social groups, the use of numbers for impression management, and how people manage to resist or mobilize numbers for different purposes. Calling for additional qualitative, close‐up studies, the paper proposes a research focus on everyday practices and the interactions of diverse control measures. It sets out several fruitful methodological pathways, both the well‐established approaches of ethnography and Actor‐Network Theory and the more novel approaches of investigating numbers as communicative acts or as dramaturgical performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the 'empirical turn' in bioethics, few specific approaches have been developed for doing clinical ethics research in close connection with clinical decision‐making on a daily basis. In this paper we describe the 'committed researcher' approach to research in clinical ethics that we have developed over the years. After comparing it to two similar research methodological approaches, the 'embedded researcher' and 'deliberative engagement', we highlight its main features: it is patient‐oriented, it is implemented by collegial and multidisciplinary teams, it uses an ethical grid to build the interview guide, and it is geared towards bringing the results to bear on the public debate surrounding the issue at stake. Finally, we position our methodological approach with respect to the 'is vs. ought' distinction. We argue that our 'commitment researcher' approach to clinical ethics research takes concerned people's life‐building values as the main data, and compares them to the larger normative framework underlying the medical practice at stake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

ABSTRACT: This paper presents an extension to the textbook IS‐LM and IS‐MP models that allows the short run effects of an increase in household income inequality to be studied in a simple manner. The income distribution is assumed to be log‐normal, and the coefficient of variation of income is assumed to be exogenous. The latter is used as the measure of income inequality, and enters otherwise standard IS and LM curves in a straightforward manner. While the models are highly stylised, they can easily be extended to more complicated variants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Previous research suggests that it would be useful to view health literacy as a set of 'distributed competencies', which can be found dispersed through the individual's social network, rather than an exclusively individual attribute. However, to date there is no focused exploration of how distributed health literacy has been defined, conceptualized or assessed in the peer‐reviewed literature. Aims: This systematic review aimed to explore: (1) definitions and conceptual models of distributed health literacy that are available from the peer‐reviewed literature; and (2) how distributed health literacy has been measured in empirical research. Methods: We searched MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycInfo, Scopus, ERIC and Web of Science using truncated versions of the keywords 'literacy' and 'distributed' (within five words' distance). We collated the definitions and conceptual models of distributed health literacy, and report on how health literacy has been measured in empirical research studies. Findings related to distributed health literacy from included manuscripts were synthesized using thematic synthesis. Results: Of the 642 studies screened, 10 were included in this systematic review. The majority were empirical manuscripts reporting on qualitative research in one of five countries, with two reviews, one conceptual analysis and one quantitative study. Edwards' definition of distributed health literacy, which emphasizes the health literacy abilities, skills and practices of others that contribute to an individual's level of health literacy was widely applied in a variety of clinical and geographical settings. However, we did not identify any quantitative instruments which directly measured distributed health literacy. There was significant variability in questions used to explore the concept qualitatively, and discrepancies across studies in regard to (a) what constitutes distributed health literacy and what does not (e.g., general social support), and (b) the relationship between distributed health literacy and other constructs (e.g., public health literacy). Conclusion: Although there is a widely applied definition of distributed health literacy, our review revealed that the research space would benefit from the development of the concept, both theoretically for example via conceptual distinctions between distributed health literacy and other types of social support, and empirically for example through the development of a quantitative measurement instrument. Patient or Public Contribution: This paper is a systematic review and did not involve patients or the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A government acts as the main supervisor of food quality and safety. How to quantify and improve the performance and efficiency of government supervision, respectively, is an urgent problem. This study constructs a food safety supervision performance index and utilizes an analytic network process‐fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model to precisely quantify the performance of government supervision. The evaluation results show that, (a) although the overall situation of food quality and safety in China is controllable, the government does not do well in food safety risk supervision, food recall supervision, and accident summary supervision. (b) Internal supervision is the weakest link in food quality and safety supervision. (c) Grassroots supervision is weak especially in prefecture and county levels. (d) There is no positive correlation between the economy level and supervision level in one region. This paper contributes to accurately reflecting the status quo of China's food safety supervision and realizing the transparency of government regulatory information, which ultimately boosts the government's efficiency in food safety supervision and improves the regulatory situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically investigates two issues largely unexplored by the literature on market discipline. We evaluate the interaction between market discipline and deposit insurance and the impact of banking crises on market discipline. We focus on the experiences of Argentina, Chile, and Mexico during the 1980s and 1990s. We find that depositors discipline banks by withdrawing deposits and by requiring higher interest rates. Deposit insurance does not appear to diminish the extent of market discipline. Aggregate shocks affect deposits and interest rates during crises, regardless of bank fundamentals, and investors' responsiveness to bank risk taking increases in the aftermath of crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does business group (BG) affiliation enhance corporate sustainability performance (CSP) in emerging economies? This paper focuses on the unique roles of BG affiliation in enhancing CSP amid increasing institutional pressures for more contributions to the society and stakeholders. The empirical evidence on the relationship between BG affiliation and CSP is inconclusive. Although BGs effectively insulate their affiliate firms from external shocks and pressures by internalizing various resources, they are vulnerable to institutional pressures for enhanced CSP. We argue that BG affiliates tend to have higher CSP than their non‐affiliated counterparts because their unique roles and history of BG development in emerging economies exert stronger institutional pressures on them. However, affiliate centrality and foreign ownership reduce the positive effect of BG affiliation on CSP in emerging economies because BG firms can exercise agency in response to institutional pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Mediation as a theory testing approach has witnessed considerable adoption among Operations Management (OM) researchers. Although mediation-testing methods have evolved tremendously in the past decade, their dissemination in the OM field has not seen parallel growth. These advanced techniques facilitate the testing of existing and complex hypotheses in a more precise manner. With the intent of critically evaluating existing and alternative methods for conducting mediation analysis needed to support sophisticated empirical research, this paper first reviews OM studies that tested for mediation in the past eleven years (2002–2012) from top-tier OM journals. Four commonly used mediation approaches were identified. Based on principles of good theory building, type of mediation model, and properties of empirical data, we evaluate the existing methodologies and make recommendations on how to improve the rigor of OM mediation testing. Using published OM studies in top journals as examples, we then illustrate the relevance and advantages of these recommendations, as well as their ease of use. Furthermore, we empirically show that more robust and insightful results can be achieved by adopting these techniques, which in turn have the promise of leading to better theory building and testing in the field of operations management. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Keefe and Tate () provide both interesting and worthwhile insights into whether, under what circumstances and to what extent cash flow volatility impacts corporate investment. In the current paper, I have two related goals. First, more narrowly, I provide a constructively critical commentary on salient aspects of their empirical strategy, giving particular emphasis to the key drivers of Keefe and Tate's contribution to the literature. Second, illustrated in the context of Keefe and Tate, my broader goal is to give general advice especially aimed at novice researchers on how to make any empirical study more appealing to a critical reader. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The legitimacy of audit technologies is inevitably linked to a knowledge base. Even though it has been pointed out that the agreements on how to measure and verify certain operations are only temporal, empirical studies on change in audit are rare. This paper reports a detailed empirical study of change in performance audit within social services in Sweden. The paper complements previous research since this paper is not about making new things auditable but about challenging existing technologies within a field. We observe how the new 'sharp' control-based model - realized through measures of prioritizing, focusing and standardizing - was related to new demands on 'facts' about the audit object. The effect was that many things in this new situation became unauditable; they audited more, but actually scrutinized less. The paper also contributes to existing literature on the role of 'sharp' control-based audit in the social sector. With a 'soft' and 'fuzzy' object, as is often the case in many parts of the public sector, it is difficult to produce hard, convincing evidence that holds true in different settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Certain criticisms of the use of the Rasch model have been queried in a paper by Bryce. We argue that these criticisms not only remain valid, but are reinforced by recent research on latent trait models. In particular, Bryce fails to present a clear conceptual argument and adopts a very inefficient procedure for testing empirically the fit of the Rasch model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on "The Predictive Power of Limited Information in Preliminary Analytical Review: An Empirical Study," a study by William R. Kinney Jr. The database used in the study, significance of type-II errors in the analytical review, and gap between book values and expected values are discussed, as well as limited information resulting from accounting errors or irregularities, changes in accounting methods or business conditions, auditor-initiated and client-initiated adjustments, the occurrence of unusual events, and statistical reliability.

The article is a reply to comments made on the authors' study "An Empirical Study of Error Characteristics in Audit Populations." Objectives in the study include providing useful information for auditing procedures and for modeling audit population by identifying the characteristics of the populations and general parameters to define them. The basis for determining the study's success was gauged on how well the basic parameters correlate with the differences among the diverse populations that were examined. Issues mentioned include the use of client type and account as surrogates for environmental variables, sampling bias, and the contamination measure that was associated with the error magnitude and audit value.

Recent years have witnessed intensive efforts to specify which requirements ethical artificial intelligence (AI) must meet. General guidelines for ethical AI consider a varying number of principles important. A frequent novel element in these guidelines, that we have bundled together under the term explicability, aims to reduce the black‐box character of machine learning algorithms. The centrality of this element invites reflection on the conceptual relation between explicability and the four bioethical principles. This is important because the application of general ethical frameworks to clinical decision‐making entails conceptual questions: Is explicability a free‐standing principle? Is it already covered by the well‐established four bioethical principles? Or is it an independent value that needs to be recognized as such in medical practice? We discuss these questions in a conceptual‐ethical analysis, which builds upon the findings of an empirical document analysis. On the example of the medical specialty of radiology, we analyze the position of radiological associations on the ethical use of medical AI. We address three questions: Are there references to explicability or a similar concept? What are the reasons for such inclusion? Which ethical concepts are referred to? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep reinforcement learning (RL) methods have achieved remarkable performance on challenging control tasks. Observations of the resulting behavior give the impression that the agent has constructed a generalized representation that supports insightful action decisions. We re-examine what is meant by generalization in RL, and propose several definitions based on an agent's performance in on-policy, off-policy, and unreachable states. We propose a set of practical methods for evaluating agents with these definitions of generalization. We demonstrate these techniques on a common benchmark task for deep RL, and we show that the learned networks make poor decisions for states that differ only slightly from on-policy states, even though those states are not selected adversarially. We focus our analyses on the deep Q-networks (DQNs) that kicked off the modern era of deep RL. Taken together, these results call into question the extent to which DQNs learn generalized representations, and suggest that more experimentation and analysis is necessary before claims of representation learning can be supported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Movies are uncertain products. Nobody knows much about them prior to their screening and their attempt to survive in the risky motion picture market week by week. This paper studies short‐life products using the example of the UK film industry, including high and low‐budget films. Using a clog‐log methodology and a sample of 552 films, the empirical results highlight the importance of the distributor's strategy and word‐of‐mouth for success in experience goods industries. Two strategies, cross‐subsidisation and opportunity cost, not previously addressed are considered. The results show these effects to be especially significant for low budget movies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]