bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The contribution of information and communication technologies on performance management and measurement in healthcare: a systematic review of the literature
Authors: Di Falco Christian , Noto Guido , Marisca Carmelo , Barresi Gustavo 
Published: September 2024

PurposeThis article aims to provide the current state of the art of the literature on the contribution of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on the measurement and management of performance in the healthcare sector. In particular, the work aims to identify current and emerging ICTs and how these relate to the performance measurement and management (PMM) cycle of healthcare organizations.Design/methodology/approachTo address the research objective, we adopted a systematic literature review. In particular, we used the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) methodology to select articles related to the investigated topic. Based on an initial screening of 560 items retrieved from Scopus and ISI Web of Knowledge, we identified and analyzed 58 articles dealing with ICTs and PMM in the healthcare sector. The last update of the dataset refers to February 2024.FindingsAlthough we attempted to address a relevant topic for both research and practice, we noticed that a relatively small sample of articles directly addressed it. Through this literature review, in addition to providing descriptive statistics of research on ICTs and PMM in healthcare, we identified six theoretical clusters of scientific streams focusing on the topic and eleven categories of ICTs effectively tackled by the literature. We then provided a holistic framework to link technologies to the different PMM phases and functions.Practical implicationsNowadays, the availability of ICTs to support healthcare organizations’ processes and services is extensive. In this context, managers at various organizational levels need to understand and evaluate how each ICT can support different activities to benefit most from their adoption. The findings of this study can offer valuable insights to top and line managers of healthcare organizations for planning their investments in both existing and emerging ICTs to support the various stages of development and functions of PMM.Originality/valueMost of the current literature focusing on ICTs in the healthcare sector refers to the contribution that technology provides to clinical processes and services, devoting limited attention to the impact of ICTs on administrative processes, such as PMM. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this represents the first literature review on the contribution of ICTs to PMM in the healthcare sector. The review, differently from other research focused on specific ICTs and/or specific PMM functions, provides a holistic perspective to understand how these technologies may support healthcare organizations and systems in measuring and managing their performance.
Imaging of train noise with heavy traffic events recorded by distributed acoustic sensing
Authors: Zhang Hanyu , Xing Lei , Zheng Xingpeng , Xu Tuanwei , Deng Dimin , Sun Mingbo , Liu Huaishan , Wu Shiguo 
Published: September 2024

AbstractTrain noise is a kind of green, non‐destructive and strong‐energy artificial seismic sources, which is widely used in railway safety monitoring, near‐surface imaging and urban underground space exploration. Distributed acoustic sensing is a new seismic acquisition technology, which has the advantages of dense sampling, simple deployment and strong anti‐electromagnetic interference ability. In recent years, distributed acoustic sensing has been gradually applied in the fields of urban traffic microseism monitoring, crack detection and underground space imaging. However, previous studies mainly focused on microseism interferometry using train event coda noise, and there is limited research on the workflow of interferometry imaging using distributed acoustic sensing–based heavy train events noise (with short coda windows), which produces an abundant of near‐source interference. Aiming at proving the effectiveness of this idea, we investigated a process workflow to get underground shear‐velocity structure based on distributed acoustic sensing recorded heavy traffic noise near Qinhuangdao train station. A weighted sliding absolute average method is used to weaken the strong amplitude to the coda wave level and reduce the near‐source influence. We demonstrated that the cross‐coherence interferometry method, after spectral whitening, has the best effect on sidelobe suppression in the virtual source surface wave shot gathers, through a comparative analysis of cross‐correlation and cross‐coherence results. For obtaining concentrated energy and strong continuity in phase velocity spectra, we selected the time windows with high spatial coherence and signal‐to‐noise ratio not less than 1.2 for stacking from 720 time windows in F–K domain. When dividing subarrays to extract pseudo‐two‐dimensional profile, we set the overlap rate between adjacent time windows to 80% to increase stacking times, enhancing the precision of phase velocity spectra and reducing the errors of picking dispersion curve. Our results show that heavy traffic train events noise (non‐pure coda) can be used to detect underground velocity structure with clear dispersion and high inversion reliability. This research provides a new processing flow for distributed acoustic sensing train noise imaging and can be applied in future urban underground space exploration.
Labour's Economic Strategy: A Response to Rachel Reeves's Mais Lecture
Authors: Davies Aled 
Published: September 2024

AbstractIn her 2024 Mais lecture, soon‐to‐be chancellor Rachel Reeves made the case for prioritising national economic security over the pursuit of ‘hyperglobalisation’. She put national economic productivity improvements at the heart of Labour's political‐economic strategy, reflecting the emergence of a dual consensus on economic government that has developed independently of the Labour Party in recent years. Reeves has recognised that this offers space for the pursuit of a moderate social democratic agenda, but the political challenge for the Labour government will be to maintain public support until its gradualist growth policies begin to take effect.
Sexism, Culture, and Firm Value: Evidence from the Harvey Weinstein Scandal and the #MeToo Movement
Authors: LINS KARL V. , ROTH LUKAS , SERVAES HENRI , TAMAYO ANE 
Published: September 2024

ABSTRACTDuring the revelation of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the reemergence of the #MeToo movement, firms with a nonsexist corporate culture, proxied by having women among the five highest‐paid executives, earn excess returns of 1.3% relative to firms without female top executives. These returns are driven by changes in investor preferences toward firms with a nonsexist culture. Institutional ownership increases in firms with a nonsexist culture after the Weinstein/#MeToo events, particularly for investors with larger holdings and investors with a lower ESG focus ex ante. Firms without female top executives improve gender diversity after these events, particularly in more sexist states and in industries with few women executives. Our evidence attests to the value of having a nonsexist corporate culture and indicates that changes in societal norms toward women are permeating into capital markets and corporations.
Taphonomic impact of vertebrate scavengers on degradation and dispersal of remains, southeastern British Columbia
Authors: Forbes Shari L. , Huculak Meaghan , Watson Christopher J. 
Published: September 2024

AbstractVertebrate scavengers represent important taphonomic agents that can act on a body, particularly when in an outdoor environment. Understanding the effects of these agents will direct how and where to search for human remains and influence the likelihood of discovery in a particular region. The current study aimed to identify the taphonomic impact of scavenger guilds in the peri‐urban and rural regions of southeastern British Columbia. Vertebrate scavenger activity on pig carcasses was recorded remotely using trail cameras and analyzed to determine temporal scavenging profiles. Both the peri‐urban and rural environments produced comparable scavenger guilds, namely: turkey vultures, American crows/northern ravens (classified as “corvids”), American black bears, and coyotes. Although the two locations had different study lengths due to variable degrees of scavenging, for the period that was common to both locations (summer to early fall), the black bear was the most frequent scavenger followed by coyote. However, the dispersal of remains by the mammalian scavengers was distinctly different between sites. Only 12%–33% of skeletal elements were recovered at the rural sites compared to 80%–90% recovered at the peri‐urban sites, even though the latter sites had a longer study timeframe. The extended timeframe of the peri‐urban sites confirmed that certain scavengers (e.g., turkey vultures and black bears) are only seasonally active in this region. These findings demonstrate the variability of scavenger behavior and the need to assign caution and local ecological knowledge when predicting scavenger trends. Such taphonomic information is relevant for human remains searches in regions with comparable scavenger guilds.
Moving beyond mean heart dose: The importance of cardiac substructures in radiation therapy toxicity
Authors: Bowen Jones Sarah , Marchant Tom , Saunderson Chris , McWilliam Alan , Banfill Kathryn 
Published: September 2024

AbstractNormal tissue tolerance dose limits to the heart have been established to reduce the risk of radiation‐induced cardiac disease (RICD). Dose constraints have been developed based on either the mean dose delivered to the whole heart (MHD) or the dose delivered to a specific volume, for example, volume of heart receiving equal to or greater than 30 Gy (V30). There is increasing evidence that the impact of thoracic radiation on cardiac morbidity and mortality has been underestimated. Consequently, there is a need to reduce the dose delivered to the heart in radical radiotherapy treatment planning. The pathophysiology of RICD may relate to dose to specific cardiac substructures (CS) rather than the traditionally observed MHD for common toxicities. The MHD or V30 Gy threshold dose rarely represents the true dose delivered to individual CS. Studies have shown the dose to specific areas may be more strongly correlated with overall survival (OS). With advances in modern radiotherapy techniques, it is vital that we develop robust, evidence‐based dose limits for CS, to fully understand and reduce the risk of RICD, particularly in high‐risk populations with cardiac risk factors. The following review will summarise the existing evidence of dose limits to CS, explain how dose limits may vary according to different disease sites or radiation techniques and propose how radiotherapy plans can be optimised to reduce the dose to these CS in clinical practice.
Credit information sharing and investment efficiency: Cross‐country evidence
Authors: Hou Fangfang , Mengistu Muhabie Mekonnen , Ng Jeffrey , Zhang Janus Jian 
Published: September 2024

AbstractCredit information sharing allows creditors to obtain borrowers' relevant credit information, and it can improve borrowers' investment outcomes that are funded by debt. Using reforms to European countries' public credit registries (PCRs) to capture mandated information sharing among creditors, we examine the impact of such sharing on firms' investment efficiency. We find that information sharing enhances firms' investment efficiency, which we measure by their investment‐q sensitivity. This finding is consistent with credit information sharing enabling creditors to better screen borrowers to mitigate adverse selection and enhancing borrower discipline to avoid a bad credit record, which leads to the borrower making more efficient investments. We also document that the information sharing effect is more pronounced when firms rely more on debt financing, when the shared credit information is more accessible, when firms' information environment is more opaque, and when there is a greater information monopoly in the banking system. We offer supplementary evidence that the effect is also more salient when PCRs have characteristics that suggest more effective credit information sharing. Overall, our paper offers new insight into whether and how information sharing in credit markets enhances firms' investment efficiency. More broadly, it highlights how making more borrower information available to creditors can have important economic spillover effects on firm outcomes.
Age and duration of obesity modulate the inflammatory response and expression of neuroprotective factors in mammalian female brain
Authors: Eroglu Binnur , Isales Carlos , Eroglu Ali 
Published: September 2024

AbstractObesity has become a global epidemic and is associated with comorbidities, including diabetes, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative diseases, among others. While appreciable insight has been gained into the mechanisms of obesity‐associated comorbidities, effects of age, and duration of obesity on the female brain remain obscure. To address this gap, adolescent and mature adult female mice were subjected to a high‐fat diet (HFD) for 13 or 26 weeks, whereas age‐matched controls were fed a standard diet. Subsequently, the expression of inflammatory cytokines, neurotrophic/neuroprotective factors, and markers of microgliosis and astrogliosis were analyzed in the hypothalamus, hippocampus, and cerebral cortex, along with inflammation in visceral adipose tissue. HFD led to a typical obese phenotype in all groups independent of age and duration of HFD. However, the intermediate duration of obesity induced a limited inflammatory response in adolescent females' hypothalamus while the hippocampus, cerebral cortex, and visceral adipose tissue remained unaffected. In contrast, the prolonged duration of obesity resulted in inflammation in all three brain regions and visceral adipose tissue along with upregulation of microgliosis/astrogliosis and suppression of neurotrophic/neuroprotective factors in all brain regions, denoting the duration of obesity as a critical risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases. Importantly, when female mice were older (i.e., mature adult), even the intermediate duration of obesity induced similar adverse effects in all brain regions. Taken together, our findings suggest that (1) both age and duration of obesity have a significant impact on obesity‐associated comorbidities and (2) early interventions to end obesity are critical to preserving brain health.
Palaeoendemic invertebrates weakly reflect palaeoendemic plants across a 52‐year‐old fire boundary
Authors: Henry Shasta C. , Kirkpatrick Jamie B. , McQuillan Peter B. 
Published: September 2024

AbstractIf palaeoendemic invertebrates depend on palaeoendemic plants, and the latter are threatened by an increase in fire incidence, there is a possibility of an extinction cascade. We test whether there is co‐occurrence of palaeoendemic plants and invertebrates in the proximity of a 52‐year‐old fire boundary in subalpine Tasmania, Australia. We used 2 × 2 m quadrats to record the incidence and cover of vascular plants and trapped invertebrates at each of these 33 sites in six time periods using an alpine Malaise trap and a CD sticky trap. The number of co‐occurrences of palaeoendemic plant taxa with palaeoendemic invertebrate taxa was greater than expected by chance (p = 0.020), but many palaeoendemic invertebrates co‐occurred with non‐palaeoendemic plants. Some of the palaeoendemic invertebrate taxa that were associated with palaeoendemic plants were monophagous, while others were associated with environmental conditions created by a long absence of fire. Many may be threatened if increasing fire incidence destroys vegetation dominated by palaeoendemic plants.
Internationalising imperatives and decolonising aspirations: Navigating social psychology teaching in Asia
Authors: Hamamura Takeshi , Clemente Jose Antonio R. , English Alexander S. , Ishii Keiko , Siddiqui Roomana N. 
Published: September 2024

AbstractWorking in a field that underrepresents populations outside Western societies, social psychologists in the Asia‐Pacific region encounter challenges in conducting research and imparting knowledge about social behaviour that resonates with local contexts. This paper argues that teaching can be a pathway for social psychology to rectify this representation problem. In this study, we report the results of our survey designed to contribute to an initial understanding of how and what social psychology is currently taught. Collectively, our survey respondents teach social psychology to over 12,000 students each year across 11 societies in the region. Results indicate that social psychology is seen as a crucial part of psychology education. About 80% of the respondents agreed that students should be taught that what is known in the international literature may not apply to a local context. At the same time, about 70% of the content taught was estimated to come from Western countries. Our findings highlight an opportunity for social psychology to evolve through teaching that embraces a more inclusive approach to meet societal demands for sound psychological knowledge.
Impact of viral testing on duration of antibiotic treatment and hospitalisation of febrile infants
Authors: Erdem G. , Watson J. R. , Tomatis C. , Ceyhan K. , Barson W. 
Published: September 2024

AbstractAimTo assess the duration of antimicrobial treatment; hospital length of stay; and invasive bacterial infections rates in hospitalised infants following the adoption of a management guideline.MethodsFaculty agreed to a standard of 24 h of antibiotic treatment for well‐appearing febrile infants with proven viral infection and no growth on bacterial cultures. The outcomes were the duration of hospitalisation and antibiotic treatment of febrile infants less than 8 weeks of age who have enterovirus, parechovirus, respiratory viruses detected. We monitored re‐admissions and missed invasive infections.ResultsOf the total 1696 infants studied, the median antibiotic treatment duration decreased from 31.5 to 24.8 h in virus‐infected infants ≤21 days of age (p = 0.02) and from 26 to 19.7 h in infants 22–56 days of age (p < 0.001). The decrease was less in infants not infected with a virus. No patient had an invasive infection identified after discharge.ConclusionThe implementation of our care standard resulted in reduction in antibiotic treatment duration without known delayed diagnosis of bacterial infections. Infants without a proven viral aetiology may need further study to inform management decisions.
Efficacy and safety of daratumumab in multiresistant immune‐mediated thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura
Authors: Weisinger Julia , Bouzid Raïda , Ranta Dana , Woaye‐Hune Pascal , Cohen‐Aubart Fleur , Gaible Clotilde , Marjanovic Zora , Corre Elise , Joly Anne‐Christine , Baylatry Minh‐Tam , Joly Berangère S. , Veyradier Agnès , Coppo Paul 
Published: September 2024

SummaryThe immunosuppressive treatment of immune‐mediated thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (iTTP) in patients with intolerance or refractoriness to the B‐cell depleting monoclonal antibody rituximab remains debated. Daratumumab, a plasma cell‐directed monoclonal antibody targeting CD38, represents a therapeutic option, but data are scarce. The French Thrombotic Microangiopathies Reference Center conducted a nationwide survey on iTTP patients treated with daratumumab. Nine episodes from seven patients were identified. Treatment was administered for A Disintegrin And Metalloproteinase with ThromboSpondin‐1 motifs, 13th member (ADAMTS13) relapses while patients were otherwise in clinical response (N = 8), or during the acute phase of the disease following rituximab intolerance (N = 1). Patients have received a median of three previous therapeutic lines. ADAMTS13 activity improved in eight cases following daratumumab administration, including three cases where ADAMTS13 normalized. ADAMTS13 relapses occurred in three patients; in two cases, retreatment with daratumumab was successful. Median ADAMTS13 relapse‐free survival was not reached; 12‐month ADAMTS13 relapse‐free survival was 56%. Daratumumab‐related adverse events occurred in five cases and were non‐severe infusion‐related reactions in all cases. These results suggest that daratumumab may be an effective treatment option for iTTP patients with intolerance or refractoriness to rituximab.
Aberrant brain structural–functional connectivity coupling associated with cognitive dysfunction in different cerebral small vessel disease burdens
Authors: Zhang Xinyue , Liang Changhu , Feng Mengmeng , Xin Haotian , Fu Yajie , Gao Yian , Sui Chaofan , Wang Na , Wang Yuanyuan , Zhang Nan , Guo Lingfei , Wen Hongwei 
Published: September 2024

AbstractAimsEmerging evidence suggests that cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) pathology changes brain structural connectivity (SC) and functional connectivity (FC) networks. Although network‐level SC and FC are closely coupled in the healthy population, how SC‐FC coupling correlates with neurocognitive outcomes in patients with different CSVD burdens remains largely unknown.MethodsUsing multimodal MRI, we reconstructed whole‐brain SC and FC networks for 54 patients with severe CSVD burden (CSVD‐s), 106 patients with mild CSVD burden (CSVD‐m), and 79 healthy controls. We then investigated the aberrant SC‐FC coupling and functional network topology in CSVD and their correlations with cognitive dysfunction.ResultsCompared with controls, the CSVD‐m patients showed no significant change in any SC‐FC coupling, but the CSVD‐s patients exhibited significantly decreased whole‐brain (p = 0.014), auditory/motor (p = 0.033), and limbic modular (p = 0.011) SC‐FC coupling. For functional network topology, despite no change in global efficiency, CSVD‐s patients exhibited significantly reduced nodal efficiency of the bilateral amygdala (p = 0.024 and 0.035) and heschl gyrus (p = 0.001 and 0.005). Notably, for the CSVD‐s patients, whole‐brain SC‐FC coupling showed a significantly positive correlation with MoCA (r = 0.327, p = 0.020) and SDMT (r = 0.373, p = 0.008) scores, limbic/subcortical modular SC‐FC coupling showed a negative correlation (r = −0.316, p = 0.025) with SCWT score, and global/local efficiency (r = 0.367, p = 0.009 and r = 0.353, p = 0.012) showed a positive correlation with AVLT score. For the CSVD‐m group, whole‐brain and auditory/motor modular SC‐FC couplings showed significantly positive correlations with SCWT (r = 0.217, p = 0.028 and r = 0.219, p = 0.027) and TMT (r = 0.324, p = 0.001 and r = 0.245, p = 0.013) scores, and global/local efficiency showed positive correlations with AVLT (r = 0.230, p = 0.020 and r = 0.248, p = 0.012) and SDMT (r = 0.263, p = 0.008 and r = 0.263, p = 0.007) scores.ConclusionOur findings demonstrated that decreased whole‐brain and module‐dependent SC‐FC coupling associated with reduced functional efficiency might underlie more severe burden and worse cognitive decline in CSVD. SC‐FC coupling might serve as a more sensitive neuroimaging biomarker of CSVD burden and provided new insights into the pathophysiologic mechanisms of clinical development of CSVD.