bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Inter- and Intraobserver Agreement of Morphological Grading for Central Lumbar Spinal Stenosis on Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Authors: Weber Clemens , Rao Vidar , Gulati Sasha , Kvistad Kjell A. , Nygaard Øystein P. , Lønne Greger 
Published: May 2015

Study Design Validation study of a morphological grading system for central lumbar spinal stenosis. Objective To evaluate and validate the inter- and intraobserver agreement of a morphological grading system for central lumbar spinal stenosis on magnetic resonance imaging between neurosurgeons and radiologists. Methods Two neurosurgeons and two radiologists independently assessed the morphological grading of lumbar spinal stenosis on pretreatment magnetic resonance imaging of 84 patients. Inter- and intrarater agreements were calculated by comparing the observers’ evaluations level to level on the grading method. The results of both clinicians were compared with the assessment of both radiologists. Results On axial magnetic resonance images, 189 lumbar disk levels were evaluated for the grade of stenosis. The interobserver agreement between the clinicians was substantial. The interobserver agreement between clinician 1 and both radiologists was substantial, and it was moderate between clinician 2 and both radiologists. The clinicians’ intraobserver agreement was almost perfect, and the radiologists’ intraobserver agreement was substantial. Conclusions The interobserver agreement of this morphological grading for lumbar spinal stenosis was high between both the clinicians and radiologists, whereas the intraobserver agreement was almost perfect. Experienced clinicians may safely evaluate lumbar magnetic resonance images using this morphological grading for central lumbar spinal stenosis.
The 100 Most Influential Articles in Cervical Spine Surgery
Authors: Skovrlj Branko , Steinberger Jeremy , Guzman Javier Z. , Overley Samuel C. , Qureshi Sheeraz A. , Caridi John M. , Cho Samuel K. 
Published: May 2015

Study Design Literature review. Objective To identify and analyze the top 100 cited articles in cervical spine surgery. Methods The Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge was searched for citations of all articles relevant to cervical spine surgery. The number of citations, authorship, year of publication, journal of publication, country of publication, and institution were recorded for each article. Results The most cited article was the classic from 1991 by Vernon and Mior that described the Neck Disability Index. The second most cited was Smith's 1958 article describing the anterior cervical diskectomy and fusion procedure. The third most cited article was Hilibrand's 1999 publication evaluating the incidence, prevalence, and radiographic progression of symptomatic adjacent segment disease following anterior cervical arthrodesis. The majority of the articles originated in the United States (65), and most were published in Spine (39). Most articles were published in the 1990s (34), and the three most common topics were cervical fusion (17), surgical complications (9), and biomechanics (9), respectively. Author Abumi had four articles in the top 100 list, and authors Goffin, Panjabi, and Hadley had three each. The Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan, had five articles in the top 100 list. Conclusion This report identifies the top 100 articles in cervical spine surgery and acknowledges those individuals who have contributed the most to the advancement of the study of the cervical spine and the body of knowledge used to guide evidence-based clinical decision making in cervical spine surgery today.
How does corporate social responsibility avoid the incidence of corruption in international expansion?
Authors: Khojastehpour Morteza 
Published: May 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to identify factors in avoidance of corruption in international expansion.

Design/methodology/approach
– Building on extensive literature, the paper includes three complexities, namely cultural, economic and regulation associated with corruption in an international context.

Findings
– The paper highlights that corruption can be addressed by three types of complexities.

Practical implications
– The findings of this study highlights the importance of corporate social responsibility for firms intend to expand internationally.

Originality/value
– The paper is one of the first to highlight the effect of corporate social responsibility on corruption in an international context.
An exploratory study of factors that affect the research progress of international PhD students from the Middle East
Authors: Khozaei Fatemeh , Naidu Sivabala , Khozaei Zahra , Salleh Nor Aini 
Published: May 2015

Purpose
– Despite the critical issues involving Middle East countries such as war and a drop in currency exchange rates, a large number of students leave their country to pursue a higher education abroad, every year. The purpose of this paper is to understand the difficulties that these students face while conducting their research in a foreign country and in doing so hopes to enhance a greater awareness of the kind of hindrances they face to complete their studies.

Design/methodology/approach
– The respondents of this qualitative study are PhD students from the Middle East who were studying in a public university in Southeast Asia. This university has recorded an increasing enrollment of international students, particularly from the Middle East in the last few years. Data were collected using a series of unstructured interviews that elicited information on critical incidents that characterized the kind of difficulties students had to face in their research. The data obtained was further analyzed using a qualitative software package – NVivo (QSR International, 10).

Findings
– Six main themes emerged from the content analysis of the interviews, which are the role of the supervisor, student characteristics, family commitments, financial problems, psychological and research barriers which provide a holistic picture of student perspectives on the factors that affect research progress. While these students might have faced difficulties that might have been cited in existing literature, this paper argues that the respondents have indicated experiencing psychological barriers that were not described in earlier studies, such as the state of mind they were in as a result of being worried for family members due to war or violence in their home countries, drop in currency exchange rates and difficulties in acquiring money due to international sanctions imposed against their countries.

Originality/value
– This study provides important insights on the factors that affect the progress of PhD students from the Middle East, while at the same time revealing a serious gap in supervisors’ role which can contribute to the delay in the research progress of PhD students.
Analyst earnings forecast revision activity around profit warnings across four European countries
Authors: Aubert François , Louhichi Waël 
Published: May 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to report on research concerning financial analysts’ activity surrounding profit warnings issued by listed companies in the four largest European stock exchanges (France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK). The authors address three aspects of analysts’ forecasts: ex-post accuracy of forecasts, earnings forecast revisions, and consensus forecast dispersion. The goal of the analysis is to study the differences between financial analysts’ behavior within different regulatory settings, namely common law vs civil law countries.Design/methodology/approach– The sample is composed of 1,330 profit warnings issued by listed European firms during the period 2000-2010. The authors apply event study methodology and OLS regressions to highlight the impact of the legal information environment on analysts’ reactions.Findings– The empirical analysis reveals that analyst activity depends on each country’s legal context factors, such as the legal information environment of the firm and the index of investor protection. Accordingly, the authors show that both a richer legal information environment and stronger country-level investor protection substantially improve analyst accuracy around profit warnings.Research limitations/implications– The sample is only composed on firms from four European countries owing to a lack of firms from other European countries that disclosed PW during the period 2000-2010. It would be pertinent to conduct future research dealing with an international sample from different continents.Practical implications– The paper contributes to a deeper understanding of analysts’ reactions to profit warnings. The findings can influence firms’ reporting practices and lead to future regulation policies.Originality/value– This work is the first to examine the relationship between profit warning releases and the behavior of financial analysts in a pan-European context where there are different institutional levels of investor protection.
Board monitoring and internal control system disclosure in different regulatory environments
Authors: Michelon Giovanna , Bozzolan Saverio , Beretta Sergio 
Published: May 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate two research questions. Is internal control system (ICS) disclosure, as a monitoring mechanism, associated with the characteristics of the board of directors, particularly the audit committee as the main board committee devoted to the effectiveness of ICS? Does the regulatory environment, particularly the regulation on ICS disclosure as an external governance/monitoring mechanism play a role in shaping the relationship between board monitoring and ICS disclosure and, if so, how?Design/methodology/approach– The authors study the ICS disclosure of 149 companies listed in four European financial markets (London, Paris, Frankfurt and Milan), each with its own regulations about ICS disclosure, during a six-year period (2003-2008).Findings– The findings support an inverse association between the extent of ICS disclosure and the proxies for board monitoring. The authors also find a statistically significant negative relationship between board monitoring and substantial ICS disclosure but no relationship between board monitoring and formal ICS disclosure. The evidence also shows that the regulatory environment moderates the relationship between board monitoring and ICS disclosure by introducing trade-offs among monitoring mechanisms.Research limitations/implications– An important caveat of the research is that it does not explore if and how investors use ICS disclosure to evaluate the firm.Practical implications– The authors propose a framework for the analysis of ICS disclosure that overcomes limitations of previous literature that has neglected the importance of the content beyond the extent of ICS disclosure. Through this framework researchers, practitioners and standard setters are able to separate merely descriptive, formal un-useful disclosure (boilerplate information) on the composing elements of the ICS from substantial disclosure regarding the functioning of the ICS (monitoring function).Originality/value– The authors also provide evidence that the relationship between board monitoring and ICS disclosure varies with the content of the information communicated, thus offering guidance for future research not to focus on measuring the extent or quantity of disclosure but on the variety and complexity of the information communicated.
The adoption of IFRS 8 – no headway made? Evidence from segment reporting practices in Germany
Authors: Franzen Nina , Weißenberger Barbara E. 
Published: May 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to assess the changes in segment reporting practices of German listed firms under the new segment reporting standard IFRS 8.Design/methodology/approach– The authors compare hand-collected segment disclosures of German firms in the first IFRS 8 year with those reported in the last IAS 14R year.Findings– The authors do not find substantial changes in the segment disclosures of German firms under IFRS 8. While the number of reportable segments slightly increased, the amount of information disclosed for each reportable segment decreased. The same applies to geographic areas reported as secondary segments under IAS 14R compared to entity-wide disclosures under IFRS 8. Furthermore, even though more country-specific information was provided, many firms still disclosed only broad geographic areas.Research limitations/implications– Future research should extend the analysis to consider more than one year of data following IFRS 8’s adoption and to examine the impact of the standard on smaller firms. Moreover, investigating economic benefits for investors and other financial statement users following IFRS 8’s adoption could be an avenue for future research.Practical implications– The findings indicate that the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) expectations regarding changes in segment reporting practices under IFRS 8 have only partially been met. The results also reveal some cases of segment reporting practice where compliance is at least questionable. Both findings are of interest to standard-setters and regulators.Originality/value– The paper provides new insights into the effects of IFRS 8’s adoption in Germany and thus contributes to the post-implementation review of IFRS 8 carried out by the IASB in 2012/2013. The study sheds light on the consequences of applying the “management approach” to segment reporting, thereby contributing to the theoretical discussion on the adequacy of the different concepts for disclosing segment information.
Disclosure, ownership structure, earnings announcement lag and cost of equity capital in emerging markets
Authors: Khlif Hichem , Samaha Khaled , Azzam Islam 
Published: May 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of voluntary disclosure, ownership structure attributes and timely disclosure on cost of equity capital in the emerging Egyptian capital market.

Design/methodology/approach
– A content analysis of annual reports is used to measure the extent of voluntary disclosure. Earnings announcement lag (EAL) is used to measure the quality of voluntary disclosure (i.e. timely disclosure). Finally, the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) framework is used to estimate cost of equity capital.

Findings
– The authors find a negative relationship between the level of voluntary disclosure and cost of equity capital. More specifically, the authors document that this association is strongly significant under high ownership dispersion, low government ownership and shorter EAL. Finally, EAL is positively associated with cost of equity capital.

Research limitations/implications
– The authors use the CAPM framework as a proxy for the cost of equity since forecasted earnings per share are not communicated by financial analysts in the Egyptian Stock Exchange.

Practical implications
– The findings demonstrate for managers that the increased levels of voluntary and timely disclosure reduce the cost of external finance and improve the marketability of firms’ equities, which may directly impact growth opportunities especially when information is communicated to investors in a timely fashion. For regulators, it provides evidence that high government ownership reduces the value relevance of voluntary disclosure among investors, while free float as a proxy for high ownership dispersion improves it.

Originality/value
– The findings show that corporate disclosure policy depends more on the managers’ incentives to provide informative annual reports than on standards and regulations. The study also represents a first attempt that demonstrates how ownership structure and timely disclosure influence the relationship between disclosure and cost of equity capital.
Ustekinumab treatment in patients with psoriasis undergoing hemodialysis
Authors: Umezawa Yoshinori , Hayashi Mitsuha , Kikuchi Sota , Fukuchi Osamu , Yanaba Koichi , Ito Toshihiro , Asahina Akihiko , Saeki Hidehisa , Nakagawa Hidemi 
Published: May 2015

AbstractPatients with psoriasis undergoing hemodialysis have additional difficulties in treatment compared with general patients. Conventional treatments such as cyclosporin, retinoids and methotrexate are not widely administrated due to the chances of an increase in adverse effects and the possibility of risk to patient survival. Recently, biologic treatments have been recognized as having sufficient efficacy for severe psoriasis with low incidence of organ toxicities. For this reason, biologic treatments may be more preferable for patients on hemodialysis; however, there is not sufficient evidence. We have treated three patients with psoriasis with ustekinumab for 1 year, who had been undergoing hemodialysis. They were previously treated with conventional treatments before ustekinumab treatments; however, they did not respond to these treatments sufficiently. Following treatment with ustekinumab, rapid and maintained improvement in psoriasis was observed. Over the course of treatments, two of the three patients encountered no adverse events during their first year of treatment. The other patient discontinued ustekinumab due to elevated levels of C‐reactive protein. These findings suggest that ustekinumab may be an appropriate treatment for patients undergoing hemodialysis who are suffering from psoriasis. However, the risk of developing infection remains higher than in general patients.
Correlation of disease activity and serum level of carcinoembryonic antigen in acquired idiopathic generalized anhidrosis: A case report
Authors: Honma Masaru , Iinuma Shin , Kanno Kyoko , Komatsu Shigetsuna , Minami‐Hori Masako , Ishida‐Yamamoto Akemi 
Published: May 2015

AbstractHypohidrosis and anhidrosis are congenital or acquired conditions which are characterized by inadequate sweating. Acquired idiopathic generalized hypohidrosis/anhidrosis (AIGA) includes idiopathic pure sudomotor failure (IPSF), which has the following distinct features: sudden onset in youth, increased serum immunoglobulin E and responds favorably to systemic corticosteroid. No clinical markers reflecting the disease severity or activity have been established. Here, we report a case of AIGA in a Japanese patient successfully treated with repeated methylprednisolone pulse therapy. In this case, serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels increased up to 19.8 ng/mL along with aberrant CEA immunoreactivity of eccrine sweat glands. Interestingly, the serum CEA level normalized as sweating improved with repeated methylprednisolone pulse therapy. Therefore, serum CEA level may serve as a useful clinical marker of hypohidrosis or anhidrosis.
Isolation and characterization of microsatellite loci from Corydalis ambigua (Papaveraceae)
Authors: Dohzono Ikumi , Kaneko Shingo , Yokoyama Jun , Isagi Yuji 
Published: May 2015

AbstractPrimers for seven unlinked and highly polymorphic microsatellite loci were developed for Corydalis ambigua to investigate its mating system and population genetics. This species can be used to explore the impact of an alien bumblebee on plant reproduction. Genetic diversity and other population genetic parameters were estimated in two populations with and without the alien bumblebee. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 4 to 20, and observed heterozygosities ranged from 0.355 to 0.969. These markers can be applied to study mating systems and population genetics in C. ambigua.
Homozygous Sequence Variants in the NPR2 Gene Underlying Acromesomelic Dysplasia Maroteaux Type (AMDM) in Consanguineous Families
Authors: Irfanullah  , Umair Muhammad , Khan Saadullah , Ahmad Wasim 
Published: May 2015

SummaryAcromesomelic dysplasia Maroteaux type (AMDM) is an autosomal recessive skeletal disorder characterized by disproportionate short stature with shortening of the acromesomelic sections of the limbs. AMDM is caused by mutations in the NPR2 gene located on chromosome 9p21‐p12. The gene encodes the natriuretic peptide receptor B (NPR‐B) that acts as an endogenous receptor for C‐type natriuretic peptide (CNP). Both CNP and NPR‐B are considered as important regulators of longitudinal growth. The study presented here investigated three consanguineous families (A, B, C) segregating AMDM in an autosomal recessive manner. Linkage in the families was established to the NPR2 gene on chromosome 9p12‐21. Sequence analysis of the gene revealed two novel missense variants (p.Arg601Ser; p.Arg749Trp) in two families and a previously reported splice site variant (c.2986+2T>G) in the third family.
A moving blocks empirical likelihood method for longitudinal data
Authors: Qiu Jin , Wu Lang 
Published: May 2015

SummaryIn the analysis of longitudinal or panel data, neglecting the serial correlations among the repeated measurements within subjects may lead to inefficient inference. In particular, when the number of repeated measurements is large, it may be desirable to model the serial correlations more generally. An appealing approach is to accommodate the serial correlations nonparametrically. In this article, we propose a moving blocks empirical likelihood method for general estimating equations. Asymptotic results are derived under sequential limits. Simulation studies are conducted to investigate the finite sample performances of the proposed methods and compare them with the elementwise and subject‐wise empirical likelihood methods of Wang et al. (2010, Biometrika 97, 79–93) and the block empirical likelihood method of You et al. (2006, Can. J. Statist. 34, 79–96). An application to an AIDS longitudinal study is presented.
Regularized outcome weighted subgroup identification for differential treatment effects
Authors: Xu Yaoyao , Yu Menggang , Zhao Ying‐Qi , Li Quefeng , Wang Sijian , Shao Jun 
Published: May 2015

SummaryTo facilitate comparative treatment selection when there is substantial heterogeneity of treatment effectiveness, it is important to identify subgroups that exhibit differential treatment effects. Existing approaches model outcomes directly and then define subgroups according to interactions between treatment and covariates. Because outcomes are affected by both the covariate–treatment interactions and covariate main effects, direct modeling outcomes can be hard due to model misspecification, especially in presence of many covariates. Alternatively one can directly work with differential treatment effect estimation. We propose such a method that approximates a target function whose value directly reflects correct treatment assignment for patients. The function uses patient outcomes as weights rather than modeling targets. Consequently, our method can deal with binary, continuous, time‐to‐event, and possibly contaminated outcomes in the same fashion. We first focus on identifying only directional estimates from linear rules that characterize important subgroups. We further consider estimation of comparative treatment effects for identified subgroups. We demonstrate the advantages of our method in simulation studies and in analyses of two real data sets.