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This work is motivated by learning the individualized minimal clinically important difference, a vital concept to assess clinical importance in various biomedical studies. We formulate the scientific question into a high-dimensional statistical problem where the parameter of interest lies in an individualized linear threshold. The goal is to develop a hypothesis testing procedure for the significance of a single element in this parameter as well as of a linear combination of this parameter. The difficulty dues to the high-dimensional nuisance in developing such a testing procedure, and also stems from the fact that this high-dimensional threshold model is nonregular and the limiting distribution of the corresponding estimator is nonstandard. To deal with these challenges, we construct a test statistic via a new bias-corrected smoothed decorrelated score approach, and establish its asymptotic distributions under both null and local alternative hypotheses. We propose a double-smoothing approach to select the optimal bandwidth in our test statistic and provide theoretical guarantees for the selected bandwidth. We conduct simulation studies to demonstrate how our proposed procedure can be applied in empirical studies. We apply the proposed method to a clinical trial where the scientific goal is to assess the clinical importance of a surgery procedure. for this article are available online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loneliness is a perceived deficit in social relationships that is nested within broader cultural meaning systems. This longitudinal study examined predictors of loneliness in Chinese and U.S. children with the hypothesis that peer relationship parameters (number of friends, social preference, and popularity) mediate the associations between behavior qualities and loneliness differently across countries. Fifth‐grade Chinese (n = 576, Mage = 10.58 years) and U.S. (White, Black, Asian, n = 540; Mage = 10.23 years) children completed two waves of assessment within an academic year. Shyness and athletic competence more strongly predicted loneliness for U.S. children, and academic ability, and aggression more strongly predicted loneliness for Chinese children. Popularity was a mediator for U.S. children but not Chinese children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social responsibility fulfilment is an important part of the operation management (OM) and competitiveness of the construction industry (CIC). This study investigates the mechanisms through which social responsibility fulfilment in the construction industry affects industry competitiveness and the mediating role of industry operations management. From the intra-organizational stakeholder perspective, social responsibility fulfilment (SR) is divided into two dimensions: shareholder-dimensional (SH) and employee-dimensional social responsibility fulfilment (EM). By analysing a panel of the construction industry in 12 provinces of China from 2015 to 2020, an inverted U-shaped relationship between social responsibility fulfilment and construction industry competitiveness and between shareholder-dimensional social responsibility fulfilment and construction industry competitiveness was found, while a U-shaped relationship between employee-dimensional social responsibility fulfilment and construction industry competitiveness was found. Furthermore, social responsibility fulfilment and shareholder-dimensional social responsibility fulfilment had significant effects on operation management. Additionally, the study concludes that operation management is positively related to construction industry competitiveness and plays a partially mediating role between social responsibility fulfilment and construction industry competitiveness. The findings enrich the theoretical basis of the relationship between social responsibility fulfilment and competitiveness and demonstrates important management significance for the construction industry in managing its social responsibility behaviour and improving industry competitiveness, thus promoting high-quality development of the construction industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasingly ubiquitous phenomenon on social media is that consumers create user-generated content (UGC) to display their purchases. This type of UGC is purchase-centered. The viewers of the UGC can include both close friends (strong ties) and acquaintances (weak ties). This paper conducted a series of five studies to fill research gaps about the relations between tie strength, purchase intention, and benign envy. The results of the first three studies consistently show that tie strength between the buyer and the viewers positively influences the viewers' feeling of benign envy, which in turn affects viewers' purchase intention toward the displayed purchase. Furthermore, two additional experiments identify purchase type as a moderator of the mediation effect. Specifically, benign envy mediates the effect when the purchase is a material one but not an experiential one. These findings not only reveal how the viewers of purchase-centered UGC are influenced by tie strength and benign envy, but also demonstrate the role of purchase type in the effect of purchase-centered UGC. This research extends multiple research streams including tie strength, social comparison, and purchase type. Additionally, this research provides important implications for the practices of advertising, UGC marketing, and influencer marketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Epimedium koreanum Nakai (EKN), is a well‐known Chinese herbal medicine for the treatment of osteoporosis, immunosuppression, tumours and cardiovascular diseases. Comprehensive component identification is essential for elucidation of its pharmacological mechanism and quality control. However, its complex chemical composition has caused certain difficulties in the analysis of this traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Therefore, there is an urgent need to establish a method for rapid classification and identification of EKN chemical components. Objective: To establish a method for rapid classification and identification of the main components of flavonoids, organic acids and alkaloids in EKN. Methods: The samples were analysed by ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (UPLC‐Q‐TOF‐MS) and data post‐processing techniques. The UPLC system used a BEH C18 column to separate the total extract of EKN. The mobile phase consisted of 0.1% formic acid in water and acetonitrile, and the EKN extract was analysed by gradient elution at a flow rate of 0.4 mL/min. In both the positive and negative ion modes, the fragment information was obtained and compared with those of the characteristic fragmentations and neutral losses described in the literature to quickly identify the target compounds. Results: Finally, we successfully screened out 51 chemical components, including 40 flavonoids, nine organic acids, and two alkaloids. Conclusion: The established method not only comprehensively analysed the chemical compositions of EKN, solved the difficult problems of analysis and identification of the complex chemical compositions of the TCM, but also further promoted the development of the application of chemical compositions of TCM. This experiment used UPLC‐Q‐TOF/MS combined with data post‐processing technology to quickly classify and identify the chemical components in Epimedium Koreanum Nakai. As a result, 51 chemical components were identified, including 40 flavonoids, 9 organic acids and 2 alkaloids. The established method not only comprehensively analyzed the chemical compositions of EKN, solved the difficult problems of analysis and identification of the complex chemical compositions of TCM, but also further promoted the development of the application of chemical compositions of TCM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is the first to empirically assess two known measures of country of origin (COO) constructs to determine their relative effectiveness. Two empirical studies employing real brands from the U.S. and South Korea were conducted. Brand origin recognition accuracy (BORA) and brand familiarity were assessed, in addition to consumer judgments. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the relative contribution of alternative COO constructs. The results show that brand familiarity has the largest influence on product quality and purchase intentions. When the two alternative measures of COO are compared directly, in the absence of brand familiarity, the traditional measure of COO captures the effects better than the Stereotype Content Model (SCM) measure. If only one measure of COO is used, both are effective. In addition, both BORA and brand familiarity help us to better understand the conditions that influence COO effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]