bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Curricular flexibility: a comparative case study of homeschooling curriculum adjusting in the USA and China
Authors: Wang Qiu , Langager Mark W. 
Published: February 2023

PurposeGiven the less mature homeschooling ecosystem in China, together with the similarity of purpose, the current study examined the lived experiences of curricular choice making in the USA and China and categories of respective families (homeschools), as a way of understanding curricular flexibility. In addressing these features, based on an updated model of curricular flexibility as it applies to homeschooling, the authors examined the aspects of who, what, when, where and how to see if this context offers new light. The authors then consider ways in which the model can be further updated for greater analytical clarity and accuracy. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.Design/methodology/approachA descriptive case study was conducted in the Xi'an city of China and the Seattle metropolitan area of the USA. A survey and two rounds of semi-structured interview data were collected from ten homeschooling families in both contexts.FindingsThe study found families’ adjusted curricula for different motives, as they navigated differing societal contexts, and curricular flexibility in homeschooling contexts was theorized as standardization and structuring strategies and social dimensions, and family preference patterns were identified. Chinese homeschooling families had comparatively less variety of available resources and freedom to homeschools compared to American counterparts, and they operated with the awareness of a standard national curriculum and its social implications.Originality/valueThis study elaborates on a little-discussed topic – the overall curriculum of each homeschool and motives influencing changing curricular choices during the process of homeschooling. And it is the first paper to use the model to explicitly define curricular flexibility in the homeschooling context, thus extending the existing theoretical discussion of curricular flexibility.
The flexible HRM and firm performance nexus: can empowering leadership play any contingent role?
Authors: Pahi Munwar Hussain , Ahmed Umair , Imroz Sohel M. , Shah Syed Mir Muhammad , Yong Irene Seok-Ching 
Published: February 2023

PurposeThe purpose of this empirical research was to investigate the individual effects of three dimensions of flexible human resource management (HRM) practices – skill flexibility, behavioral flexibility and human practice flexibility on firm performance and to what extent these relationships are strengthened/weakened when there was the moderation of empowering leadership in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of the Kingdom of Bahrain.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected from chief executive officers (CEOs) through a questionnaire survey method to test the hypothesized relationships. A final dataset of 315 valid responses was utilized for data analysis, and results were analyzed using the Smart partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique.FindingsThe findings revealed positive effects of skill flexibility, behavioral flexibility and human practice flexibility on firm performance. The moderating role of empowering leadership further strengthened the effects of employee skill flexibility and employee behavioral flexibility had on firm performance. However, empowering leadership did not pose any moderating effect on human practice flexibility and firm performance relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper offers implications for theories on HRM and leadership. It also provides valuable insights for organizations and leaders seeking to boost firm performance across SMEs.Practical implicationsThis paper offers implications for theories on HRM and leadership and also contributes in the understanding of the modern managers.Originality/valueThis paper investigated the effects of flexible HRM practices on firm performance and the role of empowering leadership across SMEs in Bahrain. It also explored how the performance of SMEs can be improved using flexible HRM practices followed by the presence of empowering leadership.
Terms in journal articles associating with high quality: can qualitative research be world-leading?
Authors: Thelwall Mike , Kousha Kayvan , Abdoli Mahshid , Stuart Emma , Makita Meiko , Wilson Paul , Levitt Jonathan M. 
Published: February 2023

PurposeScholars often aim to conduct high quality research and their success is judged primarily by peer reviewers. Research quality is difficult for either group to identify, however and misunderstandings can reduce the efficiency of the scientific enterprise. In response, we use a novel term association strategy to seek quantitative evidence of aspects of research that are associated with high or low quality.Design/methodology/approachWe extracted the words and 2–5-word phrases most strongly associated with different quality scores in each of 34 Units of Assessment (UoAs) in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021. We extracted the terms from 122,331 journal articles 2014–2020 with individual REF2021 quality scores.FindingsThe terms associating with high- or low-quality scores vary between fields but relate to writing styles, methods and topics. We show that the first-person writing style strongly associates with higher quality research in many areas because it is the norm for a set of large prestigious journals. We found methods and topics that associate with both high- and low-quality scores. Worryingly, terms associated with educational and qualitative research attract lower quality scores in multiple areas. REF experts may rarely give high scores to qualitative or educational research because the authors tend to be less competent, because it is harder to do world leading research with these themes, or because they do not value them.Originality/valueThis is the first investigation of journal article terms associating with research quality.
Environmental, social and governance performance: influence on market value in the COVID-19 crisis
Authors: Bodhanwala Shernaz , Bodhanwala Ruzbeh 
Published: February 2023

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to study whether adoption of sustainability policies by firms makes their stock market performance resilient to the downside risk during the crisis period.Design/methodology/approachThe paper empirically examines the relationship between environmental, social and governance (ESG) and stock market performance for Indian companies that have consistently been a part of Refinitiv Eikon ESG database. Further, the study examines whether there exist significant differences in stock market performance of high ESG and low ESG-compliant firms during crisis period. The sample was made up of 70 Indian firms studied over the period 2016–2019 defined as “normal period” as well as for the declared COVID-19 crisis period, i.e. January–March 2020, and full year 2020. The authors used multivariate panel data regression, robust least square multivariate regression, pooled OLS model and two-stage least square regression method.FindingsThe study extends the existing literature by investigating the impact of ESG performance on market value of firms during the crisis period. Based on the stakeholder and “flight to safety” theory, the authors hypothesized that ESG would have significant positive effect on the stock market performance during crisis period; however, the results provide robust evidence that in a well-specified model capturing the effect of accounting-based measures of performance, Size, Growth, Risk and Dividend yield, ESG had no explanatory power over the stock market performance of ESG-compliant firms during crisis period. Furthermore, no significant difference in stock market performance indicators between high and low ESG-compliant firms was observed during the crisis period of 1Q2020 as well as for full year 2020. On contrary, the study finds dividend yield to be statistically significant in determining stock market performance of Indian firms during crisis period. The study extends the existing literature by coining the term, “ESG irrelevance” during crisis period.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of this study is its limited sample size because there are very few Indian firms that have secured consistent ESG rating. The study focuses on consistently rated firms to avoid the impact of “greenwashing”. Further, the study is focused on India, which limits the generalizability of our findings to other emerging countries.Originality/valueTo the best of our knowledge, this is among the first few studies that examines sustainability and stock market performance of Indian firms during COVID-19-led crisis period. Our findings highlight no significant difference between stock market performance of high ESG firms and low ESG firms indicating that investors who wish to create wealth by investing in ESG-compliant stocks in India can do so without worrying about the companies’ ESG rating scores.
Corporate governance and cost of equity: the moderating role of ownership concentration levels
Authors: Hashmi Muhammad Arsalan , Istaqlal Urooj , Brahmana Rayenda Khresna 
Published: February 2023

PurposeThe study analyzes the influence of corporate governance and ownership concentration levels on the cost of equity. Further, the authors extend the literature by investigating the moderating effect of ownership concentration levels (i.e. at 5%, 10% and 20%) on the relationship between corporate governance and the cost of equity.Design/methodology/approachThe study applies several robust panel regression techniques to a sample of 114 active non-financial companies listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange from 2011 to 2016. Corporate governance was measured through a unique index comprising 30 governance attributes. The cost of equity was measured through the capital asset pricing model. Further, the authors construct three variables for ownership concentration levels, i.e. at 5%, 10% and 20%. To address the endogeneity problem, the one-lagged variable model and GMM approaches were also applied.FindingsThe results indicate that better corporate governance reduces the cost of equity, while ownership concentration at high thresholds would increase the cost of equity. Further, the authors find that ownership concentration at the 20% threshold moderates the relationship between corporate governance and the cost of equity. Thus, the authors argue that firms can minimize the risk faced by shareholders by implementing substantive corporate governance mechanisms. In addition, effective corporate governance mechanisms at high ownership concentration levels are imperative for managing the cost of equity.Originality/valueThe study reports novel evidence that ownership concentration at a high threshold moderates the effect of corporate governance on the cost of equity.
Practising care in a pandemic: Accounting for everyday life during COVID‐19 among people who inject drugs
Authors: Rance Jake , Bryant Joanne , Caruana Theresa , Brener Loren 
Published: February 2023

AbstractFrom the outset of the COVID‐19 pandemic, fears have been raised worldwide regarding the unique challenges facing socially marginalised people such as those who inject drugs. This article draws on in‐depth interviews conducted during the first year of the pandemic with people who inject drugs living in urban and regional Australia. Perhaps the most surprising finding to emerge was the number of participants who reported minimal disruption to their everyday lives, even improved wellbeing in some instances. Attempting to make sense of this unanticipated finding, our analysis draws on the concept of ‘care’, not as a moral disposition or normative code but as something emergent, contingent and realised in practice. Working with Foucault’s ethics and recent feminist insights on the politics of care from the field of Science and Technology Studies, we explore how care was enacted in the everyday lives of our participants. We examine how participants’ daily routines became objects of care and changed practice in response to the pandemic; how their ongoing engagement with harm reduction services afforded not only clinical support but vital forms of social and affective connection; and how for some, care was realised through an ethos and practice of constrained sociality and solitude.
Stigma, mental illness & ethnicity: Time to centre racism and structural stigma
Authors: Kapadia Dharmi 
Published: February 2023

AbstractThis article critically reviews previous research in the field of stigma, mental illness and ‘race’ and ethnicity, and argues for a shift of focus from individual and community blame, as inferred by mental illness stigma, to a more comprehensive view of how stigma operates against a backdrop of structural and institutional racism. Ethnic minority people have poorer mental health outcomes compared with White majority populations. Dominant narratives of greater mental illness stigma in ethnic minority populations, due to religious, spiritual or traditional beliefs and leading to a lower use of services, have taken centre stage in the explanations for these consequent poorer outcomes. This article argues that this ‘fact’ has become taken for granted as knowledge without corresponding comparative research evidence. Research in the field has also failed to robustly consider how racism might operate in conjunction with different forms of mental illness stigma (particularly structural stigma) to exacerbate mental illness and influence pathways to mental health treatment. Future research should centre the role of racism and structural stigma in explaining the poorer mental health outcomes for ethnic minority people.
The influence of Medicare Part D on the list pricing of brand drugs
Authors: Ippolito Benedic N. , Levy Joseph F. 
Published: February 2023

AbstractObjectiveTo compare the Medicare Part D market share of brand drugs with their net‐to‐list price ratio.Data Sources and Study SettingSSR Health Brand Net Price Tool and Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, 2007–2019.Study DesignFor each drug, we calculated the ratio of net to list price and the percent of users that were Medicare‐eligible. We compared these cross‐sectionally in each year and estimated a difference‐in‐differences model comparing drugs with high or low Medicare market shares (MMS) after following changes to program incentives in 2010.Data Collection/Extraction MethodsThe sample included brand drugs without generic competitors appearing in both datasets.Principal FindingsNet‐to‐list price ratios were negatively correlated with MMS in the later years of our sample. In 2019, a 10% increase in MMS was associated with a significant 4.6% [95% CI: 2.1%, 7.1%] decrease in net‐to‐list ratio. Difference‐in‐differences showed net‐to‐list price ratios of drugs with above median MMS fell relative to those with below median MMS. By 2019, we observe an absolute reduction of −0.2 [95% CI: −0.29, −0.11], representing 28% reduction relative to the average ratio in 2010.ConclusionsGreater exposure to the Medicare Part D market was associated with larger differences between net and list prices of drugs.
Unlocking the strength of inducible promoters in Gram‐negative bacteria
Authors: Carrillo Rincón Andrés Felipe , Farny Natalie G. 
Published: February 2023

AbstractInducible bacterial promoters are ubiquitous biotechnology tools that have a consistent architecture including two key elements: the operator region recognized by the transcriptional regulatory proteins, and the −10 and −35 consensus sequences required to recruit the sigma (σ) 70 subunits of RNA polymerase to initiate transcription. Despite their widespread use, leaky transcription in the OFF state remains a challenge. We have updated the architecture of the lac and tet promoters to improve their strength, control and portability by the adaptation of the consensus −10 and −35 sequence boxes strongly targeted by σ70, incorporation of a strong ribosome binding site recognized broadly by Gram‐negative bacteria, and independent control of the transcriptional regulators by constitutive promoters. To test the promoters, we use the far‐red fluorescent protein mCardinal, which significantly improves the signal‐to‐background ratio of promoter measurements over widely utilized green fluorescent proteins. We validate the improvement in OFF state control and inducibility by demonstrating production of the toxic and aggregate‐prone cocaine esterase enzyme CocE. We further demonstrate portability of the promoters to additional Gram‐negative species Pseudomonas putida and Vibrio natriegens. Our results represent a significant improvement over existing protein expression systems that will enable advances in protein production for various biotechnology applications.
Combination of echocardiography and pulmonary function tests could predict no complication of pulmonary hypertension during 5 years in patients with systemic sclerosis
Authors: Yoneda Katsuhiko , Takahashi Soshi , Nakayama Kazuhiko , Iwahashi Masanori , Emoto Noriaki , Kumagai Shunichi 
Published: February 2023

AbstractObjectiveTo determine whether complications of pulmonary hypertension (PH) can be predicted by noninvasive screening tests in systemic sclerosis (SSc).MethodsForty‐seven of 113 SSc patients underwent right heart catheterization (RHC) during 2011–2014. Clinical data, hemodynamic features, echocardiography, and pulmonary function tests had been followed up from the first RHC until 5 years later.ResultsAt the first RHC, out of 44 patients, 8 were diagnosed with pre‐capillary PH (mean pulmonary arterial pressure [mPAP] > 20 mm Hg), and 36 patients were defined as no‐PH (mPAP ≤ 20 mm Hg). Three patients with >15 mm Hg of pulmonary artery wedge pressure were excluded. Receiver operating characteristic analyses for pre‐capillary PH using estimated systolic PAP (esPAP) revealed an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.736, with a sensitivity and specificity of 62.5% and 86.1%, respectively, at a cutoff level of 35.0 mm Hg. The predicted percentage diffusing lung capacity for carbon monoxide (DLCO%) revealed an AUC of 0.840, with a sensitivity and specificity of 85.7% and 80.0%, respectively, at a cutoff level of 70.0%. Six pre‐capillary PH patients, including one who died from PH 14 months after the first RHC, indicated exacerbations of mPAP or esPAP within 5 years. When esPAP < 35.0 mm Hg and DLCO% > 70% were met as the cutoff, none had been newly diagnosed with PH over 5 years.ConclusionsThe conventional screening tests may be useful for detecting pre‐capillary PH with SSc, and both esPAP < 35.0 mm Hg and DLCO% > 70% indicated a lower risk of developing PH for at least 5 years.
Smoking, but not use of complementary and alternative medicine predicts residual functional disability in patients with inflammatory arthritis on biologic disease‐modifying anti‐rheumatic drugs: Results from the Singapore National Biologics Register
Authors: Seet Dominic , Yeo Siaw Ing , Aw Man Hua , Dhanasekaran Preeti , Mui‐San Lim Rosa , Koh Li Wearn , Lahiri Manjari 
Published: February 2023

AbstractAimsTo describe inflammatory arthritis (IA) patients initiating biologic disease‐modifying anti‐rheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) who use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), and determine the impact of CAM on predicting modified Health Assessment Questionnaire (mHAQ) at 6 months.MethodsThis was a prospective inception cohort study of patients ≥21 years old initiating a bDMARD for IA after July 2016. Data were obtained via questionnaires and abstraction from medical records. Baseline characteristics between ever‐CAM and CAM non‐users were compared. CAM as a predictor of mHAQ ≥1 at 6 months after bDMARD initiation was analyzed using multivariate logistic regression, adjusting for other baseline characteristics.ResultsWe recruited 299 patients (36.2% male, mean age 49.0 years). There were 45.8% who had rheumatoid arthritis, 54.2% had a spondyloarthropathy, median disease duration of 1.1 years and median mHAQ of 0.4. Compared to CAM non‐users, ever‐CAM users had a lower mean body mass index, were less likely to speak English, and more likely to smoke and drink alcohol. There was no association of CAM use with high mHAQ and no interaction with smoking. Smoking (odds ratio [OR] 938.9; 95% CI 3.20–275 884.1), baseline mHAQ (OR 252.2; 95% CI 5.34–11 899.2) and Charlson's Comorbidity Index score ≥4 (OR 237.4; 95% CI 1.22–46 184.4) independently predicted high mHAQ at 6 months.ConclusionsCAM use was not associated with high mHAQ at 6 months. Smoking was an independent predictor of residual functional disability at 6 months, even after adjusting for age, comorbidity and baseline mHAQ. Greater emphasis on smoking cessation may improve long‐term functional outcomes in IA patients on bDMARDs.
Identifying frailty and its associated factors in patients with axial spondyloarthritis
Authors: Öztürk Özgül , Feyzioğlu Özlem , Sarıtaş Fatih 
Published: February 2023

AbstractBackground and AimFrailty is an elderly people phenomenon; however, younger adults with comorbidities may show a higher trajectory of frailty toward older age. The frailty status of middle‐aged patients with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) remains little researched. We aimed to identify frailty status and to investigate the association of clinical, sociodemographic, and psychosocial factors with frailty.MethodsThis study included 114 patients aged between 40 and 65 years. The patients were classified as frail, pre‐frail, and robust according to Fried's phenotype and the Kihon Checklist (KCL). Physical function, quality of life, depression, anxiety, and disease‐related factors were assessed. Between‐group comparisons and multinomial logistic regression analysis were performed.ResultsFrailty and pre‐frailty prevalences were 20.2% and 49.1% for Fried's phenotype and 36.0% and 33.3% for the KCL. Frail adults had impaired physical function and increased disease activity compared to pre‐frail and robust patients. Adjusted multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that disease activity (odds ratio [OR] = 1.62, 95% CI = 1.12‐2.34) and Short Physical Performance Battery (OR = 0.32, 95% CI = 0.18‐0.56) were associated with Fried's phenotype‐determined frailty. Disease activity (OR = 1.91, 95% CI = 1.11‐3.26), Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index (OR = 2.70, 95% CI = 1.56‐4.67), and depression (OR = 1.55, 95% CI = 1.18‐2.02) were associated with the KCL determined frailty.ConclusionFrailty and pre‐frailty are commonly detected in middle‐aged individuals with axSpA. Our findings highlight a possible need for frailty screening and preventive programs targeting middle‐aged axSpA patients.