bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Guideline Adherence and the Factors Associated with Better Care for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients in Lithuanian PHC: Diabetes Mellitus Guideline Adherence in Lithuania PHC
Authors: Gediminas Raila , Ida Liseckienė , Lina Jarusevičienė , Valius Leonas 
Published: September 2019

Background:
Type 2 diabetes mellitus is one of the most common chronic conditions, which requires appropriate management and care at PHC level, which is described in guidelines. However, guideline adherence at the international arena is insufficient and little is known about the reasons for guideline non-adherence.

Objective:
The aim of the survey was to analyse to what extent the Lithuanian family practitioners adhere to diabetes guidelines in order to compare to international data and to discover the factors associated with better diabetes care.

Methods:
The present study is a part of EUPRIMECARE Project, which sets out to develop a framework aiming at the analysis of PHC across Europe. The sample strategy was based on an unequal probability sampling design. An audit of 4 public and 6 private PHC medical records of the year 2011 was carried out in Kaunas region, clinical records of 382 diabetes type 2 patients were reviewed. Demography, diseases and diabetes performance indicators data were collected using a uniform template. Binary and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used in the investigation of the factors related to better diabetes guideline adherence.

Results:
Three guideline adherence levels were identified: high performance (performed in more than 90% cases) - BP measurement and HbA1c exam; good performance (performed in more than 50% cases) - ECG examination and serum creatinine check; insufficient performance (performed in less than 50% of cases) - annual endocrinologist consultation, eye fundus and foot examinations, LDL check and BMI calculation. Insufficient glycaemic control was positive associated with increased endocrinologist consultation and foot exam rates, elevated BP demonstrated the positive effect to creatinine check rate, multimorbidity had positive association to the annual eye, ECG, creatinine check rates; frequent FP attendance showed no positive effect on process indicators. Rural patients have a negative association to foot and ECG exam rates compared to urban patients. In a stepwise logistic regression model, 3 dependent variables had statistically significant impact on overall diabetes care indicator performance: negative - rural location of patients (OR 0.4, 95% CI 0.2-0.8), elevated mean BP (OR 0.6, 95% CI 0.4-0.9); positive - multimorbidity (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.2-3.4).

Conclusion:

Guideline adherence for T2DM is not optimal in Lithuanian PHC. The best are BP and HbA1c checks. Suboptimal are BMI and LDL annual checks. The situation with these is almost the same as in other European countries. The better guideline adherence has been observed in urban (foot exam, ECG exam), multimorbidity (eye, ECG, creatinine exams), controlled by means of BP patients (serum creatinine test).
Evaluation of the PELITA Bullying Prevention Program: A Study of Elementary School Teachers in Kudus, Indonesia
Authors: Ahyani Latifah Nur , Pramono Ridwan Budi , Astuti Rr Dwi , Kawuryan Fajar , Purwaningrum Jayanti Putri 
Published: September 2019

Background:Bullying has become a severe problem in the educational context. Along with many other countries, Indonesia is also concerned about bullying problems.PELITA(Bullying-Free Psychoeducation for Indonesia) is a pilot program that is expected to become a foundation for a program in bullying prevention, targeted especially to prevent bullying by teachers in Kudus.Objective:This study aimed to analyze the changes in empathy scores, emotional regulation, and efficacy of teaching before and after undergoing the program.Methods:The researcher then conducted qualitative analysis to determine the narrative results related to subjects’ understanding of bullying and empathy, subjects’ ability to regulate emotions, and the teachers’ efficacy in teaching. This study used a quasi-experimental one-group pre-test post-test design with a convergent mixed methods approach. Using a mixed methods approach, we were able to compare and integrate findings from the quantitative and qualitative data. Participants were elementary school teachers selected to represent various areas in the Kudus district. Data collection was conducted using a scale, interviews, and focus group discussions.Results:The results showed that, from the three variables, empathy and emotion regulation did not see a significant increase. However, the variable of teacher efficacy showed a significant improvement.Conclusion:The qualitative and quantitative data obtained in this study evidently complements each other. Several improvements in this programs that needs attention, are knowledge transfer about learning disability, mastery of techniques related to rewards and punishment, as well as shaping techniques and other behavioral modification techniques. The analysis, conclusion, and implication will be discussed further in this article.
Review of Printed Fabric Pattern Segmentation Analysis and Application
Authors: Kumah Charles , Raji Rafiu King , Pan Ruru 
Published: September 2019

AbstractImage processing of digital images is one of the essential categories of image transformation in the theory and practice of digital pattern analysis and computer vision. Automated pattern recognition systems are much needed in the textile industry more importantly when the quality control of products is a significant problem. The printed fabric pattern segmentation procedure is carried out since human interaction proves to be unsatisfactory and costly. Hence, to reduce the cost and wastage of time, automatic segmentation and pattern recognition are required. Several robust and efficient segmentation algorithms are established for pattern recognition. In this paper, different automated methods are presented to segregate printed patterns from textiles fabric. This has become necessary because quality product devoid of any disturbances is the ultimate aim of the textile printing industry.
Determinants of Tax Morale in Croatia: an Ordered Logit Model
Authors: Bejaković Predrag , Bezeredi Slavko 
Published: September 2019

Abstract

Background: A lower tax morality leads to an increased readiness to become active in the unofficial economy and causes the lack of public revenues.

Objectives: The aim of this paper is to investigate determinants that shape tax morale of Croatian citizens.

Methods/Approach: An ordered logit model is employed to evaluate which determinants shape tax morale of Croatian citizens. Data for the research were collected from 2,000 face-to-face interviews conducted in Croatia in late 2015.

Results: The descriptive analysis illustrates that 52 percent of respondents reported a high level of tax morale, 26 percent of respondents have a low tax morale, while 8 and 14 percent have a mid-low and a mid-high tax morale, respectively. The ordered logit analysis revealed that gender, age, financial situation, region, and participation in the unofficial economy have an impact on the tax morale.

Conclusions: Besides socio-demographic, socio-economic, and spatial determinants, a great number of sanctions for participation in informal activities also shapes tax morale of the Croatian citizens. More precisely, marginal effects show that those perceiving the expected sanctions as “normal tax or social security contributions due, plus a fine or a prison sentence” have by 6.3 percentage points higher probability of reporting the highest tax morale than others.
Measurement of Export Market Concentration for the Largest European Economic Integrations
Authors: Jošić Hrvoje , Žmuk Berislav , Dumičić Ksenija 
Published: September 2019

Abstract

Background: By joining different regional economic trade agreements, countries achieve preferential trade liberalisation. There are four main types of regional economic agreements in the world today: free trade area, customs union, common market, and economic and monetary union.

Objectives: The goal of this paper is the measurement of the export market concentration for the largest European regional economic integrations in the period between 1995 and 2016.

Methods/Approach: Various concentration measures have been used in the measurement of export market concentration, but the emphasis is placed on the standardized Herfindahl-Hirschman index as the basic measure of trade concentration.

Results: Results of the analysis have shown that the highest concentration level of trade with countries worldwide is among the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries, whereas the EU-15 countries seem to have the lowest concentration level. On the other side, the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) countries have the highest concentration level of trade with countries from the same group, and again the EU-15 countries have the lowest concentration level, which indicates that the CEFTA countries implemented deeper integration processes related to mutual intra-regional trade.

Conclusions: Deep integration processes led to lower values of export market concentration indices for intra-regional trade among countries of the same regional economic integration in comparison to trading with countries worldwide.
Shedding Light on the Doing Business Index: a Machine Learning Approach
Authors: Maričić Milica , Bulajić Milica , Radojičić Zoran , Jeremić Veljko 
Published: September 2019

Abstract

Background: The World Bank (WB) acknowledged the importance of business regulatory environment and therefore created a metric which ranks 190 countries based on their level of business regulation for domestic firms measured by the Doing Business Index (DBI).

Objectives: The question which attracted our attention is whether all the observed entities should be given the same weighting scheme.

Methods/Approach: The approach we propose as an answer is two-fold. First, we cluster the countries covered by the DBI. In the next step, we apply the statistical multivariate Composite I-distance Indicator (CIDI) methodology to determine new, data-driven weights for each of the retained clusters.

Results: The obtained results show that there is a difference between the weighting schemes proposed by the CIDI methodology.

Conclusions: One can argue that one weighting scheme does not fit all the observed countries, meaning that additional analyses on the DBI are suggested to explore its stability and its weighting scheme.
Employers’ Perceptions of Business and Economics Graduates’ Competencies in Croatia
Authors: Štambuk Ana , Karanović Goran , Host Alen 
Published: September 2019

Abstract

Background: The issue of graduates’ competencies is not a new one, but was brought back into the spotlight after the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis and the ensuing disturbances in the labour market. These disturbances were manifested through an increased unemployment rate, with a significant share of highly educated people.

Objectives: This paper provides an insight into employers’ assessment of the importance and sufficiency of the competencies acquired by business and economics university bachelor graduates in Croatia.

Methods/Approach: The methodology applied in this research includes the importance-performance analysis (IPA) that provides a two-dimensional importance-satisfaction grid. Data for the IPA analysis were collected by the structured questionnaire.

Results: Results indicated that employers are satisfied with specific competencies (business and economic) and that the emphasis of business and economics higher education institutions (HEI) should be placed on generic competencies.

Conclusions: Findings imply that mobility of highly educated people could be caused by the level and quality of specific competencies of bachelors with a degree from Croatian economics higher education institutions. Additionally, the conclusion of the conducted study indicates a need for implementation of student-oriented teaching methods, the introduction of obligatory internship, and introduction of courses oriented towards the development of generic competencies.
Social Responsibility and Loyalty in Public Relations Codes
Authors: Kolić Stanić Matilda , Barišić Anton Florijan 
Published: September 2019

Abstract

Background: It is believed that social responsibility, the value that is strongly involved in the contemporary corporate behaviour, has also become the core value for public relations practitioners and their associations. However, there are ethical doubts concerning the question to whom a PR practitioner is actually responsible (or loyal) in the first place: to the client, the employer, the public, or society in general?

Objectives: This research aims to describe how social responsibility is articulated in the documents that can be considered as the crown of public relations ethics – the codes of ethics – and additionally, how the value of loyalty corresponds to the value of social responsibility.

Methods/Approach: The research is based on the content analyses of 13 codes of ethics that are delivered by 18 public relations associations at the international and the national level in the USA and the European Union.

Results: Although the phrase “social responsibility” is not mentioned in codes directly, the value of social responsibility is present in very diverse ways. When the value of loyalty came into the correlation with social responsibility, the research has shown that these values exist as a separate principle.

Conclusions: The public relations are a profession that tends to be socially responsible and tends to show that loyalty to clients and organizations is subordinated to public and social responsibility. Thus, the codes show that contemporary public relations, at least at the normative level, approach the two-way symmetric model and mostly promote “idealistic social role” of public relations.
Volatility Spillovers between Interest Rates and Equity Markets of Developed Economies
Authors: Donzwa Wilson , Gupta Rangan , Wohar Mark E. 
Published: September 2019

Abstract
This study employs the recently developed Lagrange multiplier-based causality-in-variance test by Hafner and Herwartz (2006), to determine the volatility spillovers between interest rates and stock returns for the US, the euro area, the UK, and Japan. The investigation pays careful attention to volatility transmissions between stock returns and interest rates before and after these economies reached the Zero Lower Bound (ZLB), which is permitted via the use of Shadow Short Rates (SSR), used as a proxy for monetary policy decisions. The results based on daily data imply that while bidirectional causality is observed, the volatility spillover from interest rates to stock markets are more prominent for the full-sample, as well as the sub-samples covering the pre- and during-ZLB periods.
Measuring Societal Impact Is as Complex as ABC
Authors: Noyons Ed 
Published: September 2019

Abstract

Purpose
This paper describes an alternative way of assessing journals considering a broader perspective of its impact. The Area-based connectedness (ABC) to society of journals applied here contributes to the assessment of the dissemination task of journals but with more data it may also contribute to the assessment of other missions.

Design/methodology/approach
The ABC approach assesses the performance of research actors, in this case journals, considering the characteristics of the research areas in which they are active. Each paper in a journal inherits the characteristics of its area. These areas are defined by a publication-based classification. The characteristics of areas relate to 5 dimensions of connectedness to society (news, policy, industrial R&D, technology and local interest) and are calculated by bibliometric indicators and social media metrics.

Findings
In the paper, I illustrate the approach by showing the results for a few journals. They illustrate the diverse profiles that journals may have. We are able to provide a profile for each journal in the Web of Science database. The profiles we present show an appropriate view on the journals’ societal connectedness.

Research limitations
The classification I apply to perform the analyses is a CWTS in house classification based on Web of Science data. As such the application depends on the (updates of) that system. The classification is available at www.leidenranking.com

Practical implications
The dimensions of connectedness discussed in this paper relate to the dissemination task of journals but further development of this method may provide more options to monitor the tasks/mission of journals.

Originality/value
The ABC approach is a unique way to assess performance or impact of research actors considering the characteristics of the areas in which output is published and as such less prone to manipulation or gaming.
Homologous Seminal Plasma and Glutathione Promote Pre-Capacitation Motility and Structural Stability of Cryopreserved Ram Spermatozoa
Authors: Nikolovski Martin , Dovenska Monika , Ilievska Ksenija , Adamov Nikola , Atanasov Branko , Radeski Miroslav , Kirovski Daniela , Petkov Vladimir , Dovenski Toni 
Published: September 2019

Abstract
Reduced glutathione (GSH) and homologous ram seminal plasma (HSP), used as additives in cryopreserving (CP) media prior to freezing, showed conflicting results in retaining structural integrity and progressive motility in post-thawed ram spermatozoa. The aims of this research were: (1) to assess the effect of GSH and/or HSP supplementation via soybean-lecithin CP extender on cryopreserved ram spermatozoa viability, morphology and motility pattern; and (2) to assess the effect of incubation in the context of the previous aim. Quantitatively and qualitatively, homogenized and pooled ram ejaculates (N=10) were extended with one of the following extenders: control (C) – tris-based, GSH and HSP-free, experimental-1 (E1) – C + GSH 5 mM, experimental-2 (E2) – C + HSP 20 % and experimental-3 (E3) - GSH 5 mM + HSP 20 %. Following thawing, samples were taken at 0- and 3-hours from each group (n=10) and were assessed for spermatozoa viability, morphology, and motility pattern. C-0h samples yielded a spermatozoa population with low viability, altered head morphology and highly deviated motility pattern. E3-3h samples yielded spermatozoa with unaffected viability, head morphology and high progressive motility. In conclusion, E3 extender added to cryopreserved-thawed ram spermatozoa is most efficient in obtaining high viability, unaltered head morphology, and progressive motility.
Mediating Role of Dynamic Capabilities on the Relationship between Human Resource Development and Organizational Effectiveness
Authors: Kareem Mohanad Ali , Mijbas Hayder Abdulmohsin 
Published: September 2019

Abstract

Background and purpose: The recent literature established that human resource development (HRD) is significantly related to organizational effectiveness (OE). In rapidly changing environments, the organizations should strive to address the shifts in the environment and cope with markets conditions through developing dynamic capabilities, in return, enhance organizational effectiveness. The main purpose of this study is to examine the mediating role of dynamic capabilities on the relationship between human resources development and organizational effectiveness in the Iraqi public universities context.

Design/Methodology/Approach: Data were collected through an online questionnaire survey from 215 employees executive and non-executive employees working in the selected public universities in Iraq. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the proposed research model.

Results: The analyzed data supported all the hypothesized relationships of the study. This study finds that HRD practices have a significant influence on organizational effectiveness and dynamic capabilities. Further, dynamic capabilities significantly influence on organizational effectiveness. Also, the study empirically supports the mediating effect of dynamic capabilities on the relationship between HRD practices and organizational effectiveness.

Conclusion: In the literature, there is still a lack of how HRD practices impact on organizational effectiveness through the mechanisms of dynamic capabilities. Therefore, this research contributes to the literature by pointing out the mediating role of dynamic capabilities on the relationship between HRD and organizational effectiveness. Based on the existing literature and empirical results, the study provides the theoretical and practical implications which are further discussed in detail.
Strategic SCM’s Mediating Effect on the Sustainable Operations: Multinational Perspective
Authors: Kot Sebastian , Haque Adnan ul , Kozlovski Eugene 
Published: September 2019

Abstract

Background and Purpose: The comparative cross-sectional study examines the strategic supply chain management’s mediating effect on the sustainable operations through environmental and social sustainability within the businesses operating in Canada, Iran and Turkey to attain global perspective.

Methodology: Over 200 small businesses in each country are included through combining purposive sampling, referrals, networking, and connections. For quantitative data analysis, the Smart partial least square structural equation modeling (SmartPLS-SEM) is employed.

Results: Results showed that there is statistically significant positive mediating role of strategic supply chain on the sustainable operations (environmental and social sustainable) performances in all three selected economies. Findings further confirmed that within the multinational perspective, the SCM factors have higher significant positive impact within Canada in contrast to Iran and Turkey.

Conclusion: This study offers a new theoretical contribution by examining the mediating role of strategic supply chain from multinational perspective to enhance existing body of knowledge. Furthermore, it offers a practical contribution by providing the strategic research framework to facilitate managers in improving the small businesses’ performance in sustaining operations.
Information gaps in the market for social services: retirement homes in the Czech Republic
Authors: Vrabková Iveta , Ertingerová Izabela , Vavrek Roman 
Published: September 2019

Abstract
The research address a partial issue of market failure in the form of information asymmetry. Within the public sector, social services, together with health services, belong to typical sectors where the information superiority of supply against demand is detected. The presence of asymmetrical/imperfect information within the social care has a significant effect on retired people who demand the services of retirement homes, and this effect occurs before as well as during the consumption of this service. The paper aims to identify and evaluate the information gaps of 159 official websites of retirement homes in the Czech Republic that are related to the supply of offered services. The evaluated websites of the retirement homes were selected in a way including all three types of the legal form of retirement homes (semi-budgetary units of regions, limited liability companies, church legal entities) that are present in this category of social services in the Czech Republic. The multi-criteria evaluation, performed by using the TOPSIS method, included 14 types of information (criteria). The TOPSIS method is based on the selection of the variant that is the closest one to the ideal variant and that is characterized by a vector. The results show that retirement homes insufficiently disclose several types of information. These include the conditions of acceptance into the retirement home, annual reports, some types of contact information, internal rules of the home, and the electronic link for the communication with the retirement home. In relation to the evaluation of the total level of 14 types of information being disclosed on the websites of retirement homes, it was revealed that 3% of them achieve an excellent level, 30% achieve a lesser than excellent level, 60% achieve a low level, and 7% of retirement homes achieve a very low level.