bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Soft computing in business: exploring current research and outlining future research directions
Authors: Singh Surabhi , Singh Shiwangi , Koohang Alex , Sharma Anuj , Dhir Sanjay 
Published: July 2023

PurposeThe primary aim of this study is to detail the use of soft computing techniques in business and management research. Its objectives are as follows: to conduct a comprehensive scientometric analysis of publications in the field of soft computing, to explore the evolution of keywords, to identify key research themes and latent topics and to map the intellectual structure of soft computing in the business literature.Design/methodology/approachThis research offers a comprehensive overview of the field by synthesising 43 years (1980–2022) of soft computing research from the Scopus database. It employs descriptive analysis, topic modelling (TM) and scientometric analysis.FindingsThis study's co-citation analysis identifies three primary categories of research in the field: the components, the techniques and the benefits of soft computing. Additionally, this study identifies 16 key study themes in the soft computing literature using TM, including decision-making under uncertainty, multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM), the application of deep learning in object detection and fault diagnosis, circular economy and sustainable development and a few others.Practical implicationsThis analysis offers a valuable understanding of soft computing for researchers and industry experts and highlights potential areas for future research.Originality/valueThis study uses scientific mapping and performance indicators to analyse a large corpus of 4,512 articles in the field of soft computing. It makes significant contributions to the intellectual and conceptual framework of soft computing research by providing a comprehensive overview of the literature on soft computing literature covering a period of four decades and identifying significant trends and topics to direct future research.
Recycling English town centres – from retail to healthcare: surveys, views and next steps
Authors: Wiejak-Roy Grazyna Aleksandra , Hunter Gavin 
Published: July 2023

PurposeMany town centres in England exhibit high retail property vacancies and require regeneration. Several alternatives for the replacement of town centre retail (TCR) have been suggested, one of which is healthcare. The healthcare sector in England is in distress, with the National Health Service (NHS) tackling extensive patient waiting lists, whilst operating from an ageing estate. This paper is an introductory study that uses seven carefully selected personalised surveys to raise academic awareness of the importance and potential of integrating healthcare into town centres and calls for large-scale research to establish the statistical validity of the reported observations.Design/methodology/approachThis study is developed from an interpretative standpoint. Through semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders specific to retail-to-healthcare conversions, this study reports stakeholders' perspectives on opportunities and limitations for such conversions to give direction for large statistical research in the future.FindingsAll participants support the integration of healthcare into town centres and agreed that diagnostic services, mental health support and primary care services are appropriate for provision within town centres. The participants advocate large-scale change in town centres in England, with integrated healthcare co-located with complementary services to fit with wider regeneration plans. Participants prefer adaptation of existing buildings where technically feasible and emphasise the importance of obtaining the buy-in of other stakeholders whilst expressing concerns about the uncertainty of capital funding availability.Originality/valueThis is the first study to analyse the practice of retail-to-healthcare conversions in town centres. These are still rare in England and projects are complex. The market experience is limited, and thus, the literature is scarce. This study fills this void and provides a starting point for future quantitative research in this area and informs the new town-planning policies.
Financialization and growth nexus in the EU new member states (NMS): an ARDL bounds testing approach and Granger causality analysis
Authors: Ganic Mehmed 
Published: July 2023

Purpose
This study aims to explore the short-run and long-run relationships and causality between economic growth and financialization in the new member states (NMS-11) and to provide some policy implications drawn from the empirical findings.

Design/methodology/approach
The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test approach to cointegration with the vector error correction model and the cumulative sum of squares (CUSUMQ) test for stability of functions is used between 1995q1 and 2021q4 to examine the existence of cointegration, relationships and causality between economic growth and financialization.

Findings
The findings of the ARDL bounds test demonstrate that the variables included in the models are bound together in the long run, as confirmed by the associated equilibrium correction. The estimated models indicate that the association between selected variables and economic growth is stronger and more statistically significant in the short run compared with the long run. Also, for NMS-11 understudied countries, short-run causality prevails over long-run causality. The changes in the level of financialization have a significant negative effect on the growth rates in the short run, which aligns with findings from previous empirical studies.

Originality/value
This study extends the existing very limited literature about short-run and long-run relationships and causality among economic growth and financialization, including inflation and unemployment variables, to determine their link in the NMS-11. Specifically, the present study reveals that the current level of financialization hampers economic growth and promoting such economic policies further can have adverse effects on the overall economic growth.
Firms’ characteristics, corporate governance, and the adoption of sustainability reporting: evidence from Gulf Cooperation Council countries
Authors: Al-Qudah Anas Ali , Houcine Asma 
Published: July 2023

Purpose
The purpose of the study is to investigate the factors that influence the adoption of new sustainability reporting (SDG) and external assurance (EXTA) practices. This study also examines the relationship between sustainability reporting activity and corporate economic performance for a sample of 99 companies in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries that addressed SDGs in their sustainability reports published in 2019.

Design/methodology/approach
Using a two-stage analysis, this study examines how firms’ characteristics and corporate governance variables affect SDG and economic performance, as well as the firm’s decision to adopt EXTA statements for a sample of companies in that addressed SDGs in their sustainability reports published in 2019. The authors collected data from the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) Sustainability Disclosure database and the Bureau van Dijk for Orbis database.

Findings
The results show that the variables firm size, profitability, big 4 auditors and government ownership significantly affect SDG and economic performance. The results also reveal that firms operating in the manufacturing sector are positively correlated with SDG and the firm’s decision to adopt EXTA statements. Furthermore, the results indicate that board independence positively affects SDGs and EXTA.

Research limitations/implications
The results can be particularly relevant and timely in helping large GCC companies promote their engagement to sustainable development practices by adopting more sustainable long-term strategies and policies. The findings could also guide managers in the strategic direction to identify firms’ characteristics and corporate governance features essential to promote sustainability reporting, an increasingly important performance indicator for investors and to enhance their confidence in the capital market. The results may also have practical implications to policymakers and other regulators in GCC countries to define effective frameworks that promote sustainable development reports and the use of EXTA.

Originality/value
The results make significant contributions by providing new insights to the existing literature on sustainability reporting in emerging markets by examining a unique perspective on the influence of firms’ characteristics and corporate governance features on the adoption of new sustainability reporting practices. The authors further add to the previous literature on the relationship between a firm’s economic performance and sustainable reporting by providing evidence from large companies in GCC countries, which might benefit from the adoption of multiple conceptual lenses, in this case, legitimacy and stakeholder theories. Lastly, through the empirical findings, this study provides economic validity to the 2018 joint initiative of the GRI and the United Nations Global Compact to strengthen corporate actions to achieve the United Nations SDGs.
Re-routing development in peripheral regions: exploiting anchor institution networks for micro/SME enterprise growth and innovation
Authors: Downs Carolyn , Ryder Mike , Kalinowski T. Bartosz 
Published: July 2023

PurposeThis study aims to explore the socio-cultural barriers to enterprise in economically disadvantaged communities across five countries: UK, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece.Design/methodology/approachThis study’s EU-funded project took the form of community-based participatory action research. This study focusses on the data from the interviews and network mapping exercises. A total of 40 individual interviews took place, with interviewees from communities with entrenched disadvantage and limited opportunities for employment and education and low rates of business start-ups.FindingsThe research shows that barriers to entrepreneurship can be overcome where a trusted representative (or “mediator”) can act as a bridge, facilitating access to new knowledge and networks. This approach can be used to support micro/SMEs for growth and innovation. In targeting these businesses, policymakers need to recognise the power imbalances between actors and take steps to overcome these, by establishing links with community-based mediators who can act as trusted interlocutors, enabling sustainable relationships to be developed.Originality/valueThis research targets many often hard-to-reach groups and offers insights into the lived experiences of those who often operate at the peripheries. In doing so, it shows how trusted individuals can be used to remove barriers and promote growth, making clear links between theory to practice.
Reducing roadblocks to employee health care through benefit design implications and unintended consequences of utilization management in cancer treatment
Authors: Goldsmith Patricia J. 
Published: July 2023

Purpose
HR leaders and corporate benefits managers must balance organizational costs with decisions about which new tools and treatments will be covered by their employee health insurance plans. Getting it right can mean the difference between life and death for cancer patients. Most HR leaders, however, are not experts in cancer treatment and do not know how to make sure their plan benefits do not create roadblocks to treatment.

Design/methodology/approach
A total of 295 people who were diagnosed with cancer from 2019 to 2022 participated in the 2023 CancerCare Biomarker Survey, which was conducted in January 2023.

Findings
CancerCare’s 2023 survey of cancer patients found that biomarker testing helped doctors tailor therapy for nearly all the patients (93%) whose cancers were tested over the past three years. Two in 10 cancer patients (20%) avoided unnecessary chemotherapy and/or radiation and one in 10 (10%) became eligible for a clinical trial because of biomarker testing.

Research limitations/implications
Biomarker testing is a necessary tool in the advancing world of precision cancer treatment. Despite the significant and demonstrable benefits to surveyed patients, three out of 10 respondents (29%) who received biomarker testing did not have the test covered by their insurance. Some survey respondents reported that biomarker test coverage was originally denied and they had to fight to get it covered. Others had to find ways to pay out-of-pocket or seek financial assistance to cover the cost of the testing.

Practical implications
Unfortunately, health insurance plans often limit cancer patients’ access to recommended biomarker testing, impose burdensome prior authorization (PA) protocols or require unaffordable cost-sharing, which can prevent or delay cancer patients’ access to optimal treatments. PA, a significant source of roadblocks to timely testing and treatment, was required by a quarter (25%) of the cancer patients surveyed.

Originality/value
Biomarker testing is increasingly a health care equity issue and there are significant gaps in the rate of biomarker testing between black and white lung and colorectal cancer patients, which can lead to disparities in clinical trial participation and hinder access to the most effective treatments. A key way to address these barriers is to broaden insurance coverage of biomarker testing, as recommended by medical experts.
Soil fungal communities contribute to the positive diversity–productivity relationship of tree communities under contrasting water availability
Authors: Fahey C. , Parker W. C. , Paquette A. , Messier C. , Antunes P. M. 
Published: July 2023

Abstract

Plant diversity has often been linked to increased productivity; however, this apparent diversity–productivity relationship may rely on intertrophic interactions such as those between plants and soil microbes. Soil fungi can create complementarity between plant species via altered plant resource partitioning, facilitation via fungal networks or biotic feedbacks, thereby promoting plant diversity–productivity relationships. Furthermore, these relationships are likely to be context dependent in response to resource availability.

We used a biodiversity–ecosystem function experiment with trees exposed to high and low water availability treatments to determine the contribution of soil fungal communities to the diversity–productivity relationship in tree communities. We used amplicon sequencing of soil fungi to assess fungal richness, community composition and richness of functional guilds. We then applied structural equation modelling to determine relationships between tree diversity, fungal communities and tree productivity and the role of water availability in these relationships.

Tree species richness and functional diversity both increased above‐ground tree productivity and influenced soil fungal community composition. Fungal community composition had a direct impact on tree productivity and enhanced net diversity effects on productivity. Therefore, fungal communities mediated a positive, indirect effect of tree richness on productivity. While total fungal richness was not associated with tree diversity, pathogen richness decreased and mycorrhizal richness increased with tree richness. Pathogen and mycorrhizal richness had either no impact or a weak negative effect on productivity. Tree species traits strongly affected fungal communities and these changes promoted productivity. Finally, water availability greatly influenced fungal communities but did not interact with tree diversity to affect productivity; indicating possible resilience of tree communities to altered precipitation regimes and associated changes in fungal communities.

Synthesis: Our study highlights the crucial role that fungal communities play in shaping the relationship between tree diversity, traits and productivity, and resilience to altered water availability.
Opioid poisoning in Newcastle over the last three decades: From heroin to prescription opioids
Authors: Isoardi Katherine Z , Isbister Geoffrey K 
Published: July 2023

AbstractObjectiveOpioid‐related harm has risen in recent decades, but limited research describes the clinical burden of opioid poisoning to Australian EDs. We aimed to investigate hospital presentations with opioid poisoning over three decades.MethodsThis is an observational series of prospectively collected data investigating presentations of opioid poisoning to an ED in Newcastle (1990–2021). Type of opioid, naloxone administration, intubation, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, length of stay and death were extracted from the unit's database.ResultsThere were 4492 presentations in 3574 patients (median age 36, 57.7% female), increasing from an average of 93 presentations annually in the first decade to 199 in the third decade. Deliberate self‐poisonings accounted for 3694 presentations (82.2%). Heroin dominated the 1990s, peaking in 1999 before decreasing. Prescription opioids then rose, with codeine (usually in paracetamol combination) predominating until 2018, after which oxycodone presentations exceeded them. Methadone consistently increased from six presentations annually in the first decade to 16 in the last decade. Naloxone was administered in 990 (22.0%) presentations and 266 (5.9%) were intubated, most frequently following methadone and heroin exposures. ICU admissions increased from 5% in 1990 to 16% in 2021. Codeine exposures resulted in less severe effects, whereas methadone had more severe effects overall. The median length of stay was 17 h (interquartile range 9–27 h). There were 28 deaths (0.6%).ConclusionOpioid presentations increased in number and severity over three decades as the type of opioid changed. Oxycodone is currently the main opioid of concern. Methadone poisoning was the most severe.
Weight loss and metabolic benefits of bariatric surgery in China: A multicenter study
Authors: Feng Wenhuan , Zhu Zhiming , Li Xiaoying , Zhou Zhiguang , Qu Shen , Sun Xitai , Zhu Dalong 
Published: July 2023

AbstractBackgroundThis retrospective multicenter study evaluated the efficacy and safety of bariatric surgery in Chinese patients with obesity.MethodsPatients with obesity who underwent laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy or laparoscopic Roux‐en‐Y gastric bypass and completed a 12‐month follow‐up between February 2011 and November 2019 were enrolled. Weight loss, glycemic and metabolic control, insulin resistance, cardiovascular risk, and surgery‐related complications at 12 months were analyzed.ResultsWe enrolled 356 patients aged 34.3 ± 0.6 years with a mean body mass index of 39.4 ± 0.4 kg/m2. Successful weight loss occurred in 54.6%, 86.8%, and 92.7% of patients at 3, 6, and 12 months, respectively, with no difference in percent excess weight loss between the laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy and laparoscopic Roux‐en‐Y gastric bypass surgery groups. The average percentage of total weight loss was 29.5% ± 0.6% at 12 months; 99.4%, 86.8%, and 43.5% of patients achieved at least 10%, 20%, and 30% weight loss, respectively, at 12 months. Significant improvements in metabolic indices, insulin resistance, and inflammation biomarkers were observed at 12 months.ConclusionsBariatric surgery resulted in successful weight loss and improved metabolic control, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular risk in Chinese patients with obesity. Both laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy and laparoscopic Roux‐en‐Y gastric bypass are suitable approaches for such patients.
Dynamic changes in pathology andPD‐L1expression in a patient with metastatic lung adenocarcinoma who received pembrolizumab therapy followed by two salvage surgeries two years later: A case report
Authors: Hong Green , Park Hee Sun , Yeo Min Kyung , Lee Dahye , Chung Chaeuk 
Published: July 2023

AbstractDuring chemotherapy, certain cancer cells undergo cell death, which alters the properties of remaining cells and leads to numerous changes in the constituent cells of lung cancer. Immunotherapy has been used as neoadjuvant therapy, and several studies have reported changes in lung cancer tissue following treatment with immuno‐anticancer drugs in early stage disease. However, no research has currently discussed the pathological and PD‐L1 expression changes in metastatic lung cancer. Here, we describe a patient with lung adenocarcinoma and multiple metastases who achieved complete remission after receiving initial carboplatin/pemetrexed followed by pembrolizumab treatment for 2‐years. The initial biopsy revealed adenocarcinoma with high PD‐L1 expression, and next‐generation sequencing (NGS) identifiedKRAS,RBM10, andSTAG2mutations. After 2‐years of treatment with pembrolizumab, the patient achieved complete response (CR). The patient underwent first salvage surgery for the oligo‐relapse lesion, and the pathology result showed a large cell neuroendocrine tumor (NET) with adenocarcinoma and no PD‐L1 expression. NGS revealedKRASandTP53mutations. After one year, a chest computed tomography (CT) scan revealed a small nodule in the right lower lobe, and the patient underwent second salvage surgery. Pathology results showed minimally invasive adenocarcinoma with no PD‐L1 expression and no significant genetic mutations. This case report demonstrates the dynamic changes cancer cells undergo following pembrolizumab treatment and salvage surgeries and is the first report to compare pathological changes after immunotherapy and two subsequent salvage surgeries in metastatic lung adenocarcinoma. Clinicians must remain vigilant to these dynamic changes throughout treatment and consider salvage surgery for oligo‐relapse lesions. By understanding these changes, new strategies can be developed to improve the long‐term efficacy of immunotherapy.
Assessing the potential for successful translocation and co‐management of two endangered aquatic species
Authors: Snowden S. K. , Shier D. M. , Stemp K. M. , Grether G. F. 
Published: July 2023

AbstractTranslocation programmes for endangered species typically focus on a single species, but in areas where little native habitat remains, it may be necessary to translocate multiple species to the same sites. Interactions between translocated species, such as predation and competition, are among the factors that need to be considered when planning multispecies translocations. Translocation sites for aquatic species are particularly scarce in southern California, where a limited number of sites exist for historically co‐occurring endangered mountain yellow‐legged frogs Rana muscosa and unarmoured three‐spine sticklebacks Gasterosteus aculeatus williamsoni. To determine how these species would interact if translocated to the same sites, we carried out experiments ex situ with R. muscosa tadpoles and a surrogate subspecies of stickleback (G. a. microcephalus). We found that (1) adult sticklebacks preyed on hatchling tadpoles but did not consume R. muscosa eggs or large tadpoles; (2) tadpoles did not consume stickleback eggs or disturb sticklebacks nests; and (3) both species' microhabitat use shifted slightly when the other was present. Our results suggest that these species can likely be co‐managed successfully, if measures are taken to curb stickleback predation on tadpoles until the R. muscosa population is well established. Using ex situ studies to evaluate species interactions prior to translocation is an approach that could prove useful in other species recovery programmes. Multispecies translocations could make better use of available resources when habitat is limited and promote ecosystem recovery by re‐establishing interactions among native species.