bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Epidemiology and aetiology of impaired level of consciousness in prehospital nontrauma patients in an urban setting
Authors: Björkman Johannes , Hallikainen Juhana , Olkkola Klaus T. , Silfvast Tom 
Published: October 2015

Background
There is little information on the epidemiology and aetiology of nontraumatic loss of consciousness in patients in the Emergency Department, and this high-risk patient group has been poorly characterized in the prehospital setting as well. The aim of this study was to study the epidemiology and aetiology of nontraumatic impaired level of consciousness among the patients treated by an urban Emergency Medical Service (EMS) system in Finland.

Methods
Data of all emergency calls not related to trauma in an urban EMS system in southern Finland during 2012 were analysed. The inclusion criterion in this study was impaired level of consciousness as identified from the EMS run sheets. Diagnoses made in the receiving facility were cross-checked with the data.

Results
During the study period, the EMS was alerted to 22 184 emergency calls. Of these, 306 calls met the inclusion criterion. The included patients could be categorized into four groups: seizures (32%), diabetes (24%), intoxication (17%) and impaired level of consciousness with no other obvious or specific cause (27%). The overall case fatality rate was 8%.

Conclusion
Of all EMS calls, patients who presented with an impaired level of consciousness represented 1.4% of all patients, but the fatality rate in those who remained with an impaired level of consciousness during the prehospital phase was considerable. Impaired level of consciousness was associated with a multitude of aetiologies, of which seizures were the most common.
Transforming new curriculum objectives into classroom instruction with the aid of learning studies
Authors: Selin Per , Holmqvist Olander Mona 
Published: October 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to report a case study that qualitatively describes and analyses teachers’ discussions when planning and evaluating lessons under supervision, and what is described is the focus on their reasoning, the activities decided upon and how they decided to assess the pupils’ learning outcomes when transforming formal curriculum objectives for English as a foreign language (EFL) into classroom instruction. The effect of this transformation, expressed in different ways of designing lessons, is evaluated by assessing the pupils’ learning outcomes.Design/methodology/approach– The content analysis is based on variation theory. An iteratively designed method, the learning study, is used and data from five teacher meetings in this iterative process is analysed.Findings– The analysis shows that the areas the teachers focus on initially are: implementation (activities); content; and pupils’ knowledge, prioritised in this order, even if they partly seem to be intertwined and handled as a whole, with the three different areas being put in the foreground or background during the learning-study process. In the later part of the process, the perspective has changed to a focus on: pupils’ knowledge; content; and implementation (activities).Originality/value– The findings in this paper suggest to teachers a way to implement a formal curriculum in a local context. The authors also argue for the importance of collective work in this process.
Lesson study at the foreign language university level in Japan
Authors: Lander Bruce 
Published: October 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to determine if a blended learning component can aid professional development, improve student ability and be approved at the foreign language level using the lesson study (LS) method at a university in Japan.

Design/methodology/approach
– This paper introduces the three main theoretical concepts of blended learning, learner autonomy and technology in education before explaining the LS in full. Two groups of students were taught using almost identical syllabus. One group, the A group were taught using computer rooms for two semesters, while the other (B) group were taught in regular classrooms without computers for one semester then with computers for the following semester. The impact on the student and teacher will be discussed.

Findings
– The findings of this study indicate that technology, in the form of a blended learning component added to a test-based curriculum, can enhance student test-scores, raise teacher and student awareness of technology and improve ability over a relatively short period.

Practical implications
– This study emphasizes the power of technology in modern day education. Through blended learning methodology this study proposes that teachers in the modern age should adopt some form of technology into their teaching technique.

Originality/value
– This paper is directed at teachers who are interested in integrating technology into their teaching techniques, through either computer aided or mobile assisted learning, but are slightly apprehensive in doing so. This study focuses on the introduction of an online and mobile digital flashcard tool called Quizlet. Very little literature exists in this field as the mobile application was only released in 2013.
Towards a comprehensive pedagogical theory to inform lesson study: an editorial review
Authors: Elliott John 
Published: October 2015

Purpose– This editorial review takes its agenda from issues about the meaning and use of variation theory in the context of Lesson Study, which have already been raised in previous issues of the journal. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a way of resolving such issues by locating variation theory in a broader framework of pedagogical theory. Runesson’s editorial commentary on papers in the special issue on the uses of pedagogical and learning theories in the context of Lesson Study suggest that they challenge the presumption that variation theory can be used as a basis for pre-specifying learning objectives in advance of teaching. This raises the issue of which approach to teaching the theory can be matched with; namely, teaching viewed as a technology or teaching viewed as an interactive process with students in which ends cannot be specified independently of the process. Also Hogan’s review of two recent books about Lesson and Learning Study in issue 4.2 raises the issue about the extent to which the examples supplied abstract the experience of learning from questions about students’ motivation and attitudes in classrooms. Hogan suggests that the widespread use of learning theories, such as variation theory tends to distort the concept of learning employed in Learning Study by emphasizing its cognitive rather than emotional/attitudinal aspects.Design/methodology/approach– Elliott’s approach to the above issue is to pick up on Posch’s comments in the current issue, which suggest that variation theory has implications for student motivation that need to be made more conceptually explicit in the context of Lesson and Learning Study. He argues that this can be done by integrating it into Alexander’s dialogic model of teaching and Stenhouse’s process model of curriculum development, and linking it with two related pedagogical theories that underpin these models; namely, “democratic pedagogy” (Dewey) and “accelerated learning” (Vygotsky).Findings– Such a conceptual integration of variation theory within a dialogic model of teaching throws light, Elliott argues, on Learning Study viewed as a form ofeducationalaction research.Originality/value– This review paper goes on to examine how the Lesson Studies depicted in Issue 4.4 can be located in the light of the pedagogical framework and perspectives proposed.
Teachers developing teaching
Authors: Björk Marie , Pettersson-Berggren Gunilla 
Published: October 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate what might be relevant to younger children’s understanding of a number line and how teaching can be designed according to variation theory to give pupils the opportunity to develop an understanding of the number line as a tool for mathematical thinking.Design/methodology/approach– A Learning Study was conducted by mathematics teachers at Sjöstadsskolan in Stockholm. Variation theory was used as a theory of learning. In order to use the number line as a tool in mathematical thinking, pupils have to discern what is important for this form of representation of the numeral system. Critical aspects from other studies with similar learning objects have been taken into consideration for pre-test design. These aspects supplemented and enhanced the analysis of the results and the results were consistent with earlier learning studies’.Findings– Four critical features, for younger pupils’ understanding of how the number line can be constructed, have been established in the study: the number line can have a different range (e.g. 0-20 or 30-60), correlation between the distance and value, two reference points are needed to place a third number and determine the scale, and the correlation between a part and whole.Originality/value– Learning Study is emphasized as a powerful and structured model for teacher driven research aiming to develop the praxis. The use of experiences and results from other studies is recommended.
Laboratoire Lausannois Lesson Study
Authors: Clivaz Stéphane , Grigioni Sveva , Batteau Valérie , Clerc-Georgy Anne , Martin Daniel 
Published: October 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this poster is to present the new Lausanne Laboratory Lesson Study.

Design/methodology/approach
– It stresses the links between six dimensions of this research center.

Findings
– The poster provides a list of current researches and a list of publications.

Originality/value
– This research center is the first about Lesson Study in French-speaking countries.
Intellectual capital reporting in a mandatory management report: the case of Germany
Authors: Goebel Viktoria 
Published: October 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships of company characteristics to intellectual capital (IC) reporting in a mandatory management report. Based on the relevant regulation in Germany, IC components of the mandatory management report can be characterised as being partially required, partially recommended and partially voluntary.

Design/methodology/approach
– A content analysis of 428 group management reports of listed German companies was conducted for required, recommended and voluntary IC reporting. To investigate the relationship of certain company characteristics to IC reporting, this study conducted a regression analysis considering company returns, size and industry.

Findings
– The findings show that structural capital dominates total IC reporting in Germany. This observation is in contrast to prior literature, in which relational capital has been found to be most frequently reported. However within the sub-group of voluntary IC reporting in German companies, relational capital has the highest proportion. The regression results show that company returns show no effect on IC reporting, but size and industry group are significantly related to IC reporting.

Research limitations/implications
– The findings indicate that IC reporting requirements and the relatively stringent German regulatory recommendations influence corporate IC reporting behaviour. The findings provide a basis for further discussion by standard setters regarding the extent to which requirements and recommendations on individual IC components seem to encourage IC reporting.

Originality/value
– This study utilises the unique research setting in Germany with a mandated management report to distinguish between required, recommended and voluntary IC reporting.
A rational approach to identify and cluster intangible assets
Authors: Battagello Franco M. , Grimaldi Michele , Cricelli Livio 
Published: October 2015

Purpose– This study is intended to work out a bottleneck in the comprehension of the relational nexus which links the set of key strategic resources (SRs) of a company, represented by the uncertain recognition and the ambiguous clustering of their intangible components. The purpose of this paper is to provide a candidate solution for a rational appraisal of the inventory of the knowledge-based resources held by a company, which synergically form its Intellectual Capital (IC).Design/methodology/approach– This goal is achieved by the means of a qualitative/quantitative approach composed of sequential phases, intended to: atomize the value domain of the firm into its basic building blocks; gauge their mutual interactions and impacts; re-aggregate those involved entities accordingly; cluster them into a collection of identified and validated Intangible Assets (IAs). Never giving any direct judgment on the IAs themselves (whose extension can be fuzzy or unknown). But on the impacts between the value drivers they are built on.Findings– The proposed procedure, step-by-step illustrated by means of a numerical simulation, out of the amorphous mass of the SRs, returns an analytic picture of its composing elements keeping track of their intertwined connections and mutual influence. Consequently, allowing the comprehension of the actual framing and of the relational positioning and magnitude of such entities.Practical implications– This risk-mitigated rational identification of IAs allows the analyst to target a proper evaluation technique on them. And the management of the company to mindfully allocate/leverage on them to improve business performance and strategy alignment. The implementation returns some analytic tools which render a diagnostic snapshot of the composing elements of the IC, increasing the awareness of such entities and allowing internal/external benchmarking.Originality/value– The suggested methodology mitigates the risk of discretionality in the definition of the perimeter of each target-entity, by avoiding any direct biased judgment on them. So that each asset gets unambiguously identified within a network-logic and the interlinked portfolio of knowledge-based resources can be assessed and managed in an rational and traceable way.
Multi‐method virtual electromagnetic experiments for developing suitable monitoring designs: A fictitious CO2 sequestration scenario in Northern Germany
Authors: Börner Jana H. , Wang Feiyan , Weißflog Julia , Bär Matthias , Görz Ines , Spitzer Klaus 
Published: October 2015

ABSTRACTWe present a numerical study for 3D time‐lapse electromagnetic monitoring of a fictitious CO2 sequestration using the geometry of a real geological site and a suite of suitable electromagnetic methods with different source/receiver configurations and different sensitivity patterns. All available geological information is processed and directly implemented into the computational domain, which is discretized by unstructured tetrahedral grids. We thus demonstrate the performance capability of our numerical simulation techniques.The scenario considers a CO2 injection in approximately 1100 m depth. The expected changes in conductivity were inferred from preceding laboratory measurements. A resistive anomaly is caused within the conductive brines of the undisturbed reservoir horizon. The resistive nature of the anomaly is enhanced by the CO2 dissolution regime, which prevails in the high‐salinity environment. Due to the physicochemical properties of CO2, the affected portion of the subsurface is laterally widespread but very thin.We combine controlled‐source electromagnetics, borehole transient electromagnetics, and the direct‐current resistivity method to perform a virtual experiment with the aim of scrutinizing a set of source/receiver configurations with respect to coverage, resolution, and detectability of the anomalous CO2 plume prior to the field survey. Our simulation studies are carried out using the 3D codes developed in our working group. They are all based on linear and higher order Lagrange and Nédélec finite‐element formulations on unstructured grids, providing the necessary flexibility with respect to the complex real‐world geometry. We provide different strategies for addressing the accuracy of numerical simulations in the case of arbitrary structures.The presented computations demonstrate the expected great advantage of positioning transmitters or receivers close to the target. For direct‐current geoelectrics, 50% change in electric potential may be detected even at the Earth's surface. Monitoring with inductive methods is also promising. For a well‐positioned surface transmitter, more than 10% difference in the vertical electric field is predicted for a receiver located 200 m above the target. Our borehole transient electromagnetics results demonstrate that traditional transient electromagnetics with a vertical magnetic dipole source is not well suited for monitoring a thin horizontal resistive target. This is due to the mainly horizontal current system, which is induced by a vertical magnetic dipole.
Anti‐inflammatory role of obestatin in autoimmune myocarditis
Authors: Pamukcu Ozge , Baykan Ali , Bayram Latife Cakir , Narin Figen , Cetin Nazmi , Narin Nazmi , Argun Mustafa , Ozyurt Abdullah , Uzum Kazim 
Published: October 2015

SummaryObestatin is a popular endogeneous peptide, known to have an autoimmune regulatory effect on energy metabolism and the gastrointestinal system. Studies regarding the anti‐inflammatory effects of obestatin are scarce. The aim of this study was to show the anti‐inflammatory effect of obestatin in an experimental model of autoimmune myocarditis in rats. Experimental autoimmune myocarditis was induced in Lewis rats by immunization with subcutaneous administration of porcine cardiac myosin, twice at 7‐day intervals. Intraperitoneal pretreatment with obestatin (50 μg/kg) was started before the induction of myocarditis and continued for 3 weeks. The severity of myocarditis was evidenced by clinical, echocardiographic and histological findings. In addition, by‐products of neutrophil activation, lipid peroxidation, inflammatory and anti‐inflammatory cytokines were measured in serum. Obestatin significantly ameliorated the clinical and histopathological severity of autoimmune myocarditis. Therapeutic effects of obestatin in myocarditis were associated with reduced lipid peroxidation, suppression of polymorphonuclear leukocyte infiltration and enhancement of glutathione synthesis, inhibition of serum inflammatory and activation of anti‐inflammatory cytokines. Histopathologically, the left ventricle was significantly dilated, and its wall thickened, along with widespread lymphocytic and histocytic infiltration. The myocardium was severely infiltrated with relatively large mononuclear cells. These histopathological changes were observed in lesser degrees in obestatin‐treated rats. This study demonstrated a novel anti‐inflammatory effect of obestatin in an experimental model of autoimmune myocarditis. Consequently, obestatin administration may represent a promising therapeutic approach for myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy in the future.
Director Monitoring of Expense Misreporting in Nonprofit Organizations: The Effects of Expense Disclosure Transparency, Donor Evaluation Focus and Organization Performance
Authors: Chen Qiu 
Published: October 2015

AbstractThis study examines whether three factors—the transparency of expense disclosures, donor evaluation focus, and organization performance—influence how directors monitor management expense misreporting in nonprofit organizations. An experiment with 189 nonprofit directors finds that the enhanced transparency of expense disclosures increases director monitoring by reducing the tendency to accept management expense misreporting. Further, an organization's nonfinancial performance and the perceived fairness of donor evaluation focus interact to influence director monitoring practices. Specifically, when directors know an organization's nonfinancial performance is poor and understand that this performance will negatively influence the willingness of donors to contribute, directors monitor less if they think that donors are adopting a more balanced approach to organizational evaluation that focuses on both financial and nonfinancial performance; that is, there is a reverse fair process effect as this donor approach is perceived as being fairer than if donors focus solely on financial performance. However, monitoring is equally strong regardless of donor evaluation focus when directors know that an organization's nonfinancial performance is good and a donation is forthcoming.
No weak days? Impact of day in the week on surgical mortality
Authors: Singla Animesh A. , Guy Gordon S. , Field John B. F. , Ma Ning , Babidge Wendy J. , Maddern Guy J. 
Published: October 2015

AbstractBackgroundStudies show increased rates of mortality for admissions on the weekend (WE) versus the weekday (WD). However, scepticism exists of this so‐called ‘weekend effect’ on patient outcome. It remains poorly investigated, particularly the timing of the day of surgery and post‐operative outcomes. A UK study found higher odds of death when operated on Friday and the WE, versus WD. This relationship was investigated by interrogating the Australian and New Zealand Audit of Surgical Mortality database.MethodsA standardized tool is used to collect data after every surgical death. Data in this retrospective cohort study from participating private and public hospitals in Australia on elective and emergency operations were extracted and included 7718 patients who had a surgical procedure within 30 days of admission and who subsequently died. A proxy measure of early surgical mortality, namely odds of dying within the first 48 h following surgery, was used to compare surgical mortality across days of the week.ResultsUnadjusted and adjusted odds of early surgical mortality were higher on the WE compared to WD, unadjusted and adjusted OR 1.30 (P < 0.001) and 1.19 (P = 0.026), respectively. When separated by day of week, there was a trend for higher surgical mortality on Friday, Saturday and Sunday versus all other days, although this did not reach statistical significance. ASA grade and specialty of surgery were important predictors of outcome.ConclusionThere appears to be an association between day of surgery and surgical outcome. The exact cause and contributing factors requires further investigation.
Laparoscopic and robotic hepatectomy: experience from a single centre
Authors: Lee Kit‐Fai , Cheung Yue‐Sun , Chong Charing C. N. , Wong John , Fong Anthony K. W. , Lai Paul B. S. 
Published: October 2015

AbstractBackgroundBoth laparoscopic and robotic hepatectomy have been adopted in our centre for selected patients with benign or malignant liver diseases. This article reports the perioperative outcomes of these two approaches and tries to determine any difference between them.MethodsA retrospective review of prospectively collected data was performed for all patients who underwent laparoscopic hepatectomy (LH) and robotic hepatectomy (RH) in our institute. The perioperative results were reported and compared. In order to standardise the type of liver resection performed, a subgroup analysis was made for laparoscopic left lateral sectionectomy (LS) and robotic left lateral sectionectomy (RS).ResultsSixty‐six LH and 70 RH were performed between November 2003 and January 2015. The two groups were comparable in demographic data and disease characteristics except more patient with recurrent pyogenic cholangitis (RPC) occurred in RH group. More major hepatectomies were performed in RH (20.0% versus 3.0%, P = 0.002). There was no mortality. No difference was noted in morbidity (LH 4.5%, RH 11.4%), conversion rate (LH 12.1%, RH 5.7%), median blood loss (both 100 mL) and median length of post‐operative hospital stay (both 5 days) but operative time was longer in RH (251.5 min versus 215 min, P = 0.008). There were 29 LS and 38 RS, no difference was noted in all perioperative outcomes between the two groups.ConclusionBoth laparoscopic and robotic hepatectomy are safe and their perioperative outcomes are comparable and favourable.