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Introduction: We report an investigation on collaboration practices in research papers published in the most prestigious English-medium astrophysics journals. Method: We propose an evaluation method based on three numerical indicators to study and compare, in absolute terms, three different types of collaboration (international, national and local) and authors' mobility on the basis of co-authorship. Analysis: We analysed 300 randomly selected research papers in three different time periods and used the student's t-test to determine whether the paired two-sample differences observed were statistically significant or not. Results: International collaboration is more common than national and local collaboration. International, national and local authors' mobility and intra-national collaboration do not seriously affect the indicators of the principal levels of collaboration. International collaboration and authors' mobility are more relevant for authors publishing in European journals, whereas national and intra-national collaboration and national mobility are more important for authors publishing in US journals. Conclusions: We explain the observed differences and patterns in terms of the specific scope of each journal and the socio-economic and political situation in both geographic contexts (Europe and the USA). Our study provides a global picture of collaboration practices in astrophysics and its possible application to many other sciences and fields would undoubtedly help bring into focus the really big issues for overall research management and policy.

Purpose: Incisional hernia (IH) is one of the most common complications after abdominal surgeries and may bring great suffering to patients. This study aims to evaluate the global trends in IH research from 2003 to 2023 and visualize the frontiers using bibliometric analysis., Methods: The literature search was conducted on the Web of Science for IH studies published from 2003 to 2023 and sorted by citation frequency. The top 100 most-cited articles were analyzed by the annual publication number, prolific countries and institutions, influential author and journal, and the number of citations through descriptive statistics and visualization., Results: The top paper was cited 1075 times and the median number of citations was 146. All studies were published between 2003 and 2019 and the most prolific year was 2003 with 14 articles. Jeekel J and Rosen M were regarded as the most productive authors with ten articles each and acquired 2738 and 2391 citations, respectively. The top three institutions with the most productive articles were Erasmus Mc, Carolinas Med Ctr, and Univ Utah, while the top three countries were the United States, Netherlands and Germany. The most frequent keyword was "incisional hernia" with 55 occurrences, followed by "mesh repair", "randomized controlled trial", and "polypropylene"., Conclusion: The 100 most-cited papers related to IH were published predominantly by USA and European countries, with randomized controlled trial (RCT) and observational study designs, addressing topics related to risk factors, complications, mesh repair, and mesh components., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag France SAS, part of Springer Nature.)

The topic of "teacher professionalism" is one of the most crucial ones in quality education research. It has a potential to generate results that could inform and hence enhance the practice in classrooms. Thus, research in this field needs reliable instruments to measure the professional knowledge of our teachers to be able to generate reliable results for our research problems. Not many instruments have been developed with regard to this topic. At the same time, an adequate validation of the instrument developed is often missing (Schilling & Hill, 2007). Hence, in a bigger project "ProwiN" (German acronym for professional knowledge of science teachers), test instruments for measuring science teachers' pedagogical, pedagogical content and content knowledge (PK, PCK, and CK) were developed for the subjects biology, chemistry and physics. The present study tested the validity of some of these items which were used to measure the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of biology teachers. These items focused on measuring teachers' professional knowledge by analyzing 1) teachers' "knowledge about student understanding" (or lack of understanding) of several topics in biology and 2) "knowledge about instructional strategies" like the use of models or experiments. The content validity of these instruments was examined by think-aloud interviews with American and German Biology teachers (N = 11). This study shows a high content validity for these items. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates the scope for adapting the conceptual framework of these items to measure biology teachers' PCK in other countries.

Background and Objectives: In March 2020, the WHO declared the SARS-CoV-2 corona virus a pandemic which caused a great disruption to global society and had a pronounced effect on the worldwide supply of blood., Materials and Methods: In 2022 an on-line meeting was organised with experts from Austria, Canada, Germany, Greece, Netherlands and United States to explore the opportunities for increasing preparedness within blood systems for a potential future pandemic with similar, or more devastating, consequences. The main themes included the value of preparedness, current risks to the blood supply, supply chain vulnerabilities, and the role of innovation in increasing resiliency and safety., Results: Seven key recommendations were formulated and including required actions at different levels., Conclusion: Although SARS-CoV-2 might be seen as a unique event, global health risks are expected to increase and will affect blood transfusion medicine if no preparedness plans are developed., (© 2022 International Society of Blood Transfusion.)

Aim: The present study aimed to perform scientometric assessment of global publications output of research on Azadirachta indica during 1997–2016. Methodology: The present study examined 4900 global publications on A. indica, as indexed and covered in international Scopus database during 1997–2016 with a view to understanding their growth rate, global publication share, citation impact, international collaborative papers share, distribution of publications by broad subjects, productivity and citation profile of top organizations and authors, preferred media of communication, and bibliographic characteristics of high cited papers. Results: The global publications registered 7.61% annual average growth rate, and its citation impact averaged to 13.91 citations per paper. The global share of top 10 countries ranged from 1.91% to 31.04%, with the largest share (53.49%) from India, followed by Brazil (6.12%), USA (6.02%), etc., About 86.82% and 85.81% of the cumulative global publication and citation share comes from top 10 countries during 1997–2016. The cumulative global share of top 10 countries increased from 85.89% to 86.35% from 1997–2006 to 2007–2017. Only top three countries registered relative citation index above the world average of 1.0: UK (1.95), USA (1.71), and Germany (1.42) during 1997–2016. Agricultural and biological sciences contributed the largest global publications share of 48.41%, followed by pharmacology, toxicology and pharmaceutics (22.04%), biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology (17.35%), medicine (16.80%), environmental science (13.39%), and other three sub-fields contribution varying from 4.90% to 8.22% during 1997–2016. Eight hundred and forty-eight global organizations and 1589 authors participated in global A. indica research, of which the 25 most productive global organizations and authors together contributed 20.65% and 8.92% global publication share and 22.43% and 12.66% global citation share, respectively, during 1997–2016. Among 4387 journal papers (in 959 journals) in global A. indica research, the top 20 most productive journals together contributed 43.63% global share of total journal publication output during 1997–2016. Conclusion: Totally, 78 publications were found to be high cited, as they registered citations from 100 to 1441 during 1997–2016 and they together received 18,498 citations, averaging to 237.15 citations per paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined mixed reality research published during 1994-17, on a series of bibliometric measures including growth rate, global share, citation impact, top countries, organizations and authors, preferred media of research communication and bibliographic characteristics of high cited papers. The study finds that mixed reality research registered faster (35.49%) growth, low citation impact averaged to (6.93) citations per paper, contributed too low share (0.03%) of its total research output in 24 years as highly cited papers. The USA, Japan, and Germany are seen as the world leaders in the subject, each had contributed at least 11% global publications share in 24 years. The mixed reality research is widely scattered across 68 countries with top most productive organizations and authors accounting for modest (23.35% and 16.56%) global publications share and modest (29.53% and 24.37%) global citation share respectively during the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bibliometric indices are a widely used measure of research impact. The aim of the current study was to identify and characterise the top one hundred most-cited research articles in the topic of chronotype research. A search of the Thomson Reuters Web of Science database returned 974 eligible articles (published between 1990 and 2016). Citations for the 100 most-cited articles ranged between 438 and 29. The most represented journal was Chronobiology International (n = 30). Nearly 50% of articles originated in Germany and the U.S. The bibliometrics reported identify key publications and provide insight into trends within the topic of chronotype research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A content analysis of The Washington Post and the Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung revealed that both papers relied on official sources, but the German paper provided far less coverage of the conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: There is a widely held belief that sustainable development (SD) policies are essential for universities to successfully engage in matters related to sustainability, and are an indicator of the extent to which they are active in this field. This paper aims to examine the evidence which currently exists to support this assumption. It surveys a sample of universities in Brazil, Germany, Greece, Portugal, South Africa and the UK and the USA to ascertain the extent to which universities that are active in the field of sustainable development have formal policies on sustainable development, and whether such policies are a pre-condition for successful sustainability efforts. Design/methodology/approach: The study involved 35 universities in seven countries (five universities respectively). A mixed-methods approach has been used, ranging from document analysis, website analysis, questionnaires and interviewing. Findings: Although only 60 per cent of the sampled universities had a policy that specifically addressed SD, this cannot be regarded as an indicator that the remaining 40 per cent are not engaged with substantial actions that address SD. Indeed, all of the universities in the sample, regardless of the existence of a SD formal policy, demonstrated engagement with environmental sustainability policies or procedures in some form or another. This research has been limited by the availability and ability to procure information from the sampled universities. Despite this, it is one of the largest research efforts of this kind ever performed. Research limitations/implications: This research has been limited by the availability and ability to procure information from the sampled universities. Practical implications: The findings provide some valuable insights into the connections between SD policies on the one hand and the practice of sustainable development in higher education institutions on the other. Social implications: Universities with SD policies can contribute to models of economic growth consistent with sustainable development. Originality/value: The study is the one of the largest research efforts of this kind ever performed.

In the English literature, facial approximation methods have been commonly classified into three types: "Russian,""American," or "Combination." These categorizations are based on the protocols used, for example, whether methods use average soft-tissue depths (American methods) or require face muscle construction (Russian methods). However, literature searches outside the usual realm of English publications reveal key papers that demonstrate that the Russian category above has been founded on distorted views. In reality, Russian methods are based on limited face muscle construction, with heavy reliance on modified average soft-tissue depths. A closer inspection of the American method also reveals inconsistencies with the recognized classification scheme. This investigation thus demonstrates that all major methods of facial approximation depend on both face anatomy and average soft-tissue depths, rendering common method classification schemes redundant. The best way forward appears to be for practitioners to describe the methods they use (including the weight each one gives to average soft-tissue depths and deep face tissue construction) without placing them in any categorical classificatory group or giving them an ambiguous name. The state of this situation may need to be reviewed in the future in light of new research results and paradigms.

About 20% of all psoriasis patients require photo- and/or systemic therapy because of the severity of their disease. Side effects, contraindications, insufficient clinical responses, and lack of long-term efficacy underline the need for novel and improved anti-psoriatic therapies. In recent years, the technology has been established to generate therapeutic molecules from living cells capable of inhibiting disease-relevant mediators or cell-cell interactions. Several of these so-called biologics interfering with key steps in the immunopathogenesis of psoriasis have the potential to meet this need with regard to treating moderate to severe psoriasis. Here, the Psoriasis Study Group of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Dermatologische Forschung (ADF) analyses the established anti-psoriatic treatment modalities. With the shortcomings of these options in mind, biologics with an immediate relevance for clinical application in the treatment of psoriasis are discussed. The focus is on their potential medical advantages along with safety aspects. Moreover, legal and economical aspects with an impact on the use of biologics are addressed.

Background: On August 5th, 2006, the third meeting of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilities (IASSID) Special Interest Research Group (SIRG) on Parents and Parenting with Intellectual Disabilities was convened in Maastricht, The Netherlands, coinciding with the 2nd International Congress of IASSID-Europe. The SIRG Parents and Parenting with Intellectual Disabilities membership includes scholars from a number of countries including the United States, Canada, England, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. These scholars come from a range of academic and professional disciplines, including sociology, psychology, education, nursing, social work and occupational therapy. Method: This position paper developed by the Parenting SIRG brings into sharp relief the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities adopted by the General Assembly in December 2006. The convention affirms the right of persons with disabilities to marry and found a family (Article 23, (1)(a)). Further, states parties are bound to "take effective action and appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against persons with disabilities in all matters relating to marriage, family, parenthood and relationships..." (Article 23 (1)), and "...render appropriate assistance to persons with disabilities in the performance of their child-rearing responsibilities" (Article 23 (2)). Results: This position paper synthesizes messages from research about the challenges that parents labelled with intellectual disability face, and how they can be assisted in their parenting role.

The article presents abstracts of medical education, which include the use of games as teaching tools in surgical residency, computer-based testing of the modified essay question and the joint U.S.-German collaboration project in medical education.

Objective. To sort out the literature related to conjunctival bacteria and summarize research hotspots and trends of this field. Materials and Methods. The relevant literature data from 1900 to 2019 was retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database. After manual selection, each document record includes title, author, keywords, abstract, year, organization, and citation. We imported the downloaded data into CiteSpace V (version 5.5R2) to draw the knowledge map and conduct cooperative network analysis, discipline and journal analysis, cluster analysis, and burst keyword analysis. Results. After manual screening, there were 285 relevant papers published in the last 28 years (from 1991 to 2019), and the number is increasing year by year. The publications of conjunctival bacteria were dedicated by 1381 authors of 451 institutions in 56 countries/regions. The United States dominates this field (82 literatures), followed by Germany (23 literatures) and Japan (23 literatures). Overall, most cited papers were published with a focus on molecular biology, genetics, nursing, and toxicology. Most papers fall into the category of ophthalmology, veterinary sciences, and pharmacology and pharmacy. The only organized cluster is the "postantibiotic effect," and the top 5 keywords with the strongest citation bursts include "postoperative endophthalmiti(s)," "infectious keratoconjunctiviti(s)," "conjunctiviti(s)," "resistance," and "diversity". Conclusion. The global field of conjunctival bacteria has expanded in the last 28 years. The United States contributes most. However, there are little cooperation among authors and institutions. Overall, this bibliometric study organized one cluster, "postantibiotic effect", and identified the top 5 hotspots in conjunctival bacteria research: "postoperative endophthalmiti(s)," "infectious keratoconjunctiviti(s)," "conjunctiviti(s)," "resistance," and "diversity". Thus, further research focuses on these topics that may be more helpful to prevent ocular infection and improve prophylaxis strategies to bring a benefit to patients in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is commonly defined as a transitional subclinical state between normal aging and dementia. A growing body of research indicates that health behaviors may play a protective role against cognitive decline and could potentially slow down the progression from MCI to dementia. The aim of this study is to conduct a bibliometric analysis of literature focusing on health behaviors and MCI to summarize the factors and evidence regarding the influence of health behaviors on MCI. Methods: The study performed a bibliometric analysis by retrieving publications from the Science Citation Index and Social Sciences Citation Index subdatabases within the Web of Science Core Collection. Utilizing VOSviewer and CiteSpace software, a total of 2,843 eligible articles underwent co-citation, cokeywords, and clustering analyses. This methodology aimed to investigate the current status, trends, major research questions, and potential future directions within the research domain. Results: The bibliometric analysis indicates that research on healthy behaviors in individuals with MCI originated in 2002 and experienced rapid growth in 2014, reflecting the increasing global interest in this area. The United States emerged as the primary contributor, accounting for more than one-third of the total scientific output with 982 articles. Journals that published the most articles on MCI-related health behaviors included "Journal of Alzheimer's Disease," "Neurobiology of Aging," "Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience," and other geriatricsrelated journals. High-impact papers identified by VOSviewer predominantly cover concepts related to MCI, such as diagnostic criteria, assessment, and multifactorial interventions. Co-occurrence keyword analysis highlights five research hotspots in health behavior associated with MCI: exercise, diet, risk factors and preventive measures for dementia, cognitive decline-related biomarkers, and clinical trials. Conclusion: This study provides a comprehensive review of literature on health behavior in individuals with MCI, emphasizing influential documents and journals. It outlines research trends and key focal points, offering valuable insights for researchers to comprehend significant contributions and steer future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Interleukin17 (IL17) is an important cytokine in host defense at mucosal surfaces and also mediates many autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In recent years, many types of research relevant to the structure and function of IL17 have been identified. However, there is no bibliometric analysis in this research field. This study aims to explore the history, research hotspots, and emerging trends of IL17 from the perspective of the structure and function dynamics. Methods: Articles relevant to IL17 in the last two decades were retrieved through the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database. The bibliometric analysis was performed by VOSview. Results: A total of 882 papers in this research were analyzed from 65 countries, and the rate of published articles has increased from 2008 annually, with the USA, China, and Germany leading the research effort. Frontiers in Immunology has significantly impacted research in this field and the University of Pittsburgh was the leading institution. Gaffen, Sarah L. from the University of Pittsburgh was the most productive researcher in this field and Papp Ka from the Probity Medical Research Incorporate of Canada is the most co-cited author. The analysis of keywords showed that inflammation, expression, Th17 cells, and cytokines were the main hotspots and frontier directions of IL17. The trend of clinical application in the future is the development of new therapy drugs based on the structure of IL17 or IL17 signaling pathway molecular. Conclusions: Our research summarized the developments and research trends of IL17 and would help researchers understand the research status of IL17 and provide a reference for future researchers as soon as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the global research status and future trends of cadastre were evaluated by using bibliometric analysis. This study is based on the analysis of research topics, scientific production, collaboration among countries and authors, and most cited papers on cadastre research which obtained from database of Scopus during the time period from 1958 to 2018. A total of 4220 papers were published in 128 different journals and most of them were original articles (2906, 68.8%) followed by conference paper (966, 22.9%). It found that Germany was the most productive country with 218 papers and 5.2% of total literature followed by United States and Australia. University of Melbourne was found to publish the highest number of documents with 85 papers and to cover 4.2% of the total literature followed by Delft University of Technology. Most used five keywords were "cadastre", "GIS", "surveying", "mapping" and "land use" (n = 945, 791, 300, 296 and 294 times, respectively). The top two authors who contributed most were Williamson, I.P. (69 articles), Van Oosterom P. (40 articles). The top-cited publication was "Analysis of land-cover transitions based on seventeenth and eighteenth century cadastral maps and aerial photographs" written by Cousins, in Landscape Ecology in 2001. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metso Paper will supply almost €40 million worth of equipment for groundwood pulp and paper making processes to Myllykoski Group''s paper mills in Germany, Finland and the USA. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

As humanity reaches the 5.0 industrial revolution, education plays a critical role in boosting the quality of human resources. This paper reports bibliometric research on emerging TiP during 1993-2022 in the educational field to analyse its development on any level of education during the last three decades. This study employed a Scopus database. The findings are that the trend of TiP publication in educational fields has tended to increase every year during the past three decades and conference paper became the most published document type, the USA is the country which produces the most publications; "Students" being the most occurrences keyword and total link strength. The publication of the TiP is ranked to the Quartile 1, which implies that a publication with the cited performance is a publication with credibility because the publisher has a good reputation. Researchers can find the topics most relevant to other metadata sources such as Web of Science, Publish, and Perish.

The present article explores the structure of and recent developments in research activities in the polar regions. Based on a bibliographic study of published papers indexed in the ISI Web of Science during the period 1981-2007, we have analyzed trends in publication, scientific disciplines and subdisciplines, coauthorship, and international collaboration within the field of polar research. We have uncovered several rather striking trends. Scientific output in terms of refereed publications has increased far more rapidly in polar research compared to science in general, quadrupling rather than doubling over the surveyed period. There is a nearly 1:1 ratio between papers covering the Arctic relative to the Antarctic, with the vast majority within either the geosciences (40%) or biology (33%). There has been particularly a steep rise in the number of climate-related papers. The U.S.A. is by far the largest contributor to polar research on both the Arctic and the Antarctic, followed by Canada, the U.K., Germany, Norway, and Russia. The number of coauthored papers has grown markedly, reflecting geopolitical shifts and changing national and international funding priorities during the period. We believe our publication-based survey reveals interesting developments in scientific activities and international cooperation in general, and in polar science strategies and priorities in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Delisting a company from the stock market often negatively affects the interests of all related parties. For shareholders, the main detriment is their loss of the ability to trade and sell their shares on the open stock market. As voluntary delistings become a more prevalent market phenomenon worldwide, countries are seeking to implement regulatory protections during the process. The aim of this paper is to make a comparative analysis of the protection of shareholders during delisting across multiple jurisdictions including the United States, the UK, Germany, India, and Thailand that have adopted different regimes for protecting shareholders during a company's voluntary delisting. The goal is to answer the question of which shareholder protection instruments in the covered jurisdictions have adopted to protect shareholder and company interests during delisting, and also to question the effectiveness of investor protection in voluntary delisting. The paper offers potential ways to better protect the rights of shareholders during the voluntary delisting process to achieve a balanced regulation of different corporate actors' interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The papers in the special series describe the role of data-based decision-making (DBDM) in improving the outcomes of students with learning disabilities based on research across Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States. The articles address multiple aspects of a model of DBDM that includes the role of teacher knowledge, skills, beliefs, and sources of professional learning and the role of systems-level factors in improving student achievement. In this article, the conclusions of each paper are described in terms of that model. The papers illustrate that DBDM can improve achievement for students with learning disabilities through a DBDM process called data-based individualization (DBI)—especially if teachers have innovative supports (e.g., new technologies). For teachers, DBDM professional development (PD) can improve DBDM knowledge and implementation, but PD may not be adequate in all cases, with practical experience playing a central role. In addition, classroom-level DBDM may not translate to success for students with learning disabilities. Finally, the articles reveal a need to focus more on systems-level factors in successful DBDM systems like DBI—especially when implemented outside the experimental context. These findings provide a contemporary lens on DBDM as it related to students with learning disabilities and establish foci for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2020 a petition from students and recent graduates of dance/movement therapy (DMT) programs was sent to the Board of Directors of the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA). This petition brought forward concerns and critical questioning of movement observation frames, including a desire to bring a critical and anti-oppressive lens to the access of all bodies within larger psychological theories, DMT theories, and movement observation systems. The petition included a request for a "true" and "comprehensive" history of Rudolf Laban. The Education Committee of the ADTA charged one of three working groups to examine Laban's history. This paper is the culmination of the history working groups' exploration. It focuses on how histories are constructed and raises questions about the truth and comprehensiveness of any single account. It is divided into two sections. Laban's controversial period in Germany (1919–1937) is highlighted first with a comparison of the historical narratives constructed by different scholars. The second part briefly describes the last two decades of Laban's life (1938–1958) when he expanded his work outside of dance. It follows that no single story, including the ones constructed by this committee, can claim to be "true" and "comprehensive" histories. This history working group recommends integrating a full history of Laban in the teaching of dance therapy courses, engaging in intentional discussions about the cultural limitations of the system due to how it was developed, integrating and encouraging research by non-European dance therapists, and purposefully encouraging and sustaining diverse student bodies to continue the diversification of the DMT field. Decentering characteristics of the dominant culture will not be a quick fix, but a journey which requires the acknowledgement of Laban's contributions to the discipline, while holding him accountable for his choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While conventional historical narratives of entrepreneurship education focuson its rise in business schools since the 1970s, this paper traces its roots to the early 19th century and chroniclesits evolutionwithin the field of higher education more broadly. Using a comparative history design, we show how changing social imaginaries of entrepreneurship educationin Germany and the United States were based on divergent and evolving justifications of entrepreneurial autonomy and its relationship to the common good. Our narrative explores howthese social imaginaries shaped themoral and political legitimacy of entrepreneurshipandtheaims, practices, and organizational forms of entrepreneurship education. We draw out the implications of this deeper history for entrepreneurship education today, including (a) its current social imaginary, (b) the character of entrepreneurial knowledge, and (c) the relationship of entrepreneurship education to the modern university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2013, the European Union has aimed to harmonize the public sector accounting (PSA) of its member states by developing European Public Sector Accounting Standards (EPSAS). As a prerequisite for consistent EPSAS, a conceptual framework (CF) is to be developed which includes an explicit selection of purposes. Providing an international comparative view with the theoretical underpinning of Nobes' classification, this paper presents a literature-based systematization of PSA purposes. Our systematization is applied to three CFs: one international (IPSAS) and two national (from the USA and Germany, respectively). Through a normative discussion, we conclude that accountability is preferable as the overall accounting purpose. This theoretical lens is used to evaluate the recent status quo of the ongoing EPSAS CF project. This paper thereby develops relevant implications for accounting theory and offers a starting point for standard setters and scholars to prioritize purposes for PSA with respect to different legal frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Without a building permit, a construction project cannot be legally implemented. For this, the building project must undergo a review process by the competent authority. As the number of building projects to be inspected increases, building authorities are faced with ever greater challenges, due to the lack of adequate personnel to manage the inefficient, labor extensive, and lengthy building permit process. In-depth scientific studies of the existing building permit processes are missing so far. This paper introduces a proposed framework that aims to investigate and compare the building permit processes in Germany and in the United States of America (USA). Among other things, the processes are studied for both by-right and non-by-right cases. In doing so, the data are based on a collected empirical study in the form of qualitative expert interviews. The findings of the comparison provide a detailed description and illustration of the current building permit processes, as well as the lessons learned from both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores differences in national responses to foodborne disease outbreaks, addressing both the sources of policy divergence and their implications for public health and coordinated emergency response. It presents findings from a comparative study of two multi-state E. coli outbreaks, one in the United States (2006) and one in Germany (2011), demonstrating important differences in how risk managers understood and responded to each nation's first major outbreak associated with fresh produce. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of 36 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders and hundreds of archival documents, this paper traces how social constructions of the E. coli risk interacted with organizational dynamics among state and industry actors to produce divergent policy outcomes: the U.S. outbreak was understood primarily as an agricultural problem that led to an industry-led agricultural solution, whereas the German outbreak was understood as a human disease problem that did not result in a substantial policy response once the acute health crisis passed. The paper concludes by discussing how these policy processes generate partial solutions to foodborne contamination that expose modern societies to systemic vulnerabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on several conferences related to computer technology Scheduled to be held from November 1992 to September 1993. The second Software Engineering Institute conference on software risk is going to be held on March 2-4, 1993 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The conference brings together software managers, practitioners and educators to discuss software technical risk. Vendor exhibits will also be offered. The conference is sponsored by Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute and the U.S. Department of Defense.

Based on contemporary press articles and applying a comparative methodology, this study examines the responses of important British and American quality papers to the unfolding of Nazi anti-Semitism from September 1930 until April 1933. Besides reconstructing and comparing the press coverage, the study seeks to explain the patterns beneath the journalistic perceptions and interpretations of Nazi anti-Semitism in the liberal democracies. During the final years of the Weimar Republic the papers reported fully and critically on Nazi anti-Semitism, yet they underestimated its radical nature. The extent of the assault on the Jews following Hitler's seizure of power therefore surprised British and American observers. Between 30 January 1933 and the anti-Jewish boycott of 1 April 1933 the journalists struggled to grasp the nature of Nazi anti-Semitism and the role of Hitler therein. Ultimately, their reading of events in Germany was preconditioned by their own liberal democratic outlook. Even if they reached differing conclusions, they were united in their conviction that Hitler and the Nazis would not dare to continue their anti-Semitic campaign in the face of adverse ‘world opinion’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using the InCites tool of Thomson Reuters, this study compares normalized citation impact values calculated for China, Japan, France, Germany, United States, and the UK throughout the time period from 1981 to 2010. InCites offers a unique opportunity to study the normalized citation impacts of countries using (i) a long publication window (1981 to 2010), (ii) a differentiation in (broad or more narrow) subject areas, and (iii) allowing for the use of statistical procedures in order to obtain an insightful investigation of national citation trends across the years. Using four broad categories, our results show significantly increasing trends in citation impact values for France, the UK, and especially Germany across the last thirty years in all areas. The citation impact of papers from China is still at a relatively low level (mostly below the world average), but the country follows an increasing trend line. The USA exhibits a stable pattern of high citation impact values across the years. With small impact differences between the publication years, the US trend is increasing in engineering and technology but decreasing in medical and health sciences as well as in agricultural sciences. Similar to the USA, Japan follows increasing as well as decreasing trends in different subject areas, but the variability across the years is small. In most of the years, papers from Japan perform below or approximately at the world average in each subject area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Computer‐based assessment allows for the monitoring of reader behaviour. The identification of patterns in this behaviour can provide insights that may be useful in informing educational interventions. Objectives: Our study aims to explore what different patterns of reading activity exist, and investigates their interpretation and consistency across different task sets (units), countries, and languages. Three patterns were expected: on‐task, exploring and disengaged. Methods: Using log data from the PISA 2012 digital reading assessment (9226 students from seven countries), we conducted hierarchical cluster analyses with typical process indicators of digital reading assessments. We identified different patterns and explored whether they remained consistent across different units. To validate the interpretation of the identified patterns, we examined their relationship to performance and student characteristics (gender, socio‐economic status, print reading skills). Results and Conclusions: The results indicate a small number of transnational clusters, with unit‐specific differences. Cluster interpretation is supported by associations with student characteristics—for example, students with low print reading skills were more likely to show a disengaged pattern than proficient readers. Exploring behaviour tended to be exhibited only once across the three units: It occurred in the first unit for proficient readers and in later units for less skilled readers. Major Takeaways: Behavioural patterns can be identified in digital reading tasks that may prove useful for educational monitoring and intervention. Although task situations are designed to evoke certain behaviours, the interpretation of observed behavioural patterns requires validation based on task requirements, assessment context and relationships to other available information. Lay Description: What is already known about the subject matter?: Students differ in how they read, comprehend and use digital information.Indicators from process data provide insight about how students engage with digital reading tasks. What does this paper add to the subject matter?: Based on multiple process indicators, a small number of clusters indicating different behavioural activity can be distinguished.These clusters can be described as on‐task, passive, hasty, exploring, disengaged, persistent and lost interest.A meaningful interpretation of the clusters must consider the requirements of the underlying tasks. Implications for practice and/or policy: Knowledge of how students engage with digital resources may provide useful feedback for teachers to guide students' learning or intervene when they struggle.Educational monitoring: The high comparability of country‐specific results suggests an invariant set of solution strategies in the digital reading assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benchmark replacement rates are a key parameter for retirement plans. Often, a pension level of around 70 per cent of net income during working life is considered as an adequate choice. However, this heuristic value is left unjustified, and data‐based benchmarks are limited. In this paper, we propose to estimate a pension‐level benchmark based on keeping the living standard achieved during working life constant after retirement. Applying parametric, semi‐parametric and non‐parametric estimation methods to data from the United States and Germany, we find that a net pension income of around 100 per cent of the last net working‐life income, plus or minus 10 percentage points, is required to keep the living standard constant. However, we also find that the outcome of the exercise can depend on how 'living standards' are measured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most current scientific policies incorporate debates on cities and the geographic organisation of scientific activity. Research on ‘world cities’ develops the idea that interconnected agglomerations can better take advantage of international competition. Thus, the increasing concentration of activities in these cities at the expense of others could be observed by certain scholars using measures based on scientific publications. Others, however, show that an opposite trend is emerging: the largest cities are undergoing a relative decline in a country’s scientific activities. To go beyond this seeming contradiction, this paper provides a global analysis of all countries with papers in the Web of Science over the period 1987–2007. The author’s addresses were geocoded and grouped into agglomerations. Registering of papers was based on the fractional counting of multi-authored publications, and the results are unambiguous: deconcentration is the dominant trend both globally and within countries, with some exceptions for which explanations are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Reports that the German firm Voith Paper will supply a Master Jet F/L hydraulic headbox with Voith ModuleJet dilution water control to an unnamed graphic paper mill in the United States.

This paper presents an example of transformative learning afforded to social work students participating in an international study program between United States and Germany focusing on Genocide and the Holocaust. Using epistemic justice as a frame, it foregrounds the experience of a Black female social work student who was the target of microaggressions while abroad and highlights the critical theories, such as critical consciousness, critical realism, and intersectionality, used to help students reflect on and make meaning of their experiences. Through self-reflection and sustained dialogue, the experience offers examples of how students were engaged in a learning process that enabled them to become critically aware of the various individual and social forces that impact the lived experience of others. It also demonstrates how examining past issues of social injustice and oppression can be central to transformational learning about agency and advocacy in the modern day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Negotiations over wages have always been a central part of industrial relations in capitalist economies. The unstable value of money in the 19th and 20th centuries has made these negotiations both crucial and complex. Linking contemporary understandings of monetary values to wage bargaining provides an important historical background for a better understanding of real wage developments and the agency of workers. Adopting a comparative perspective, this paper discusses how managers and workers dealt with changing monetary values in Germany and the United States from the 1870s to the immediate aftermath of the First World War. The paper also discusses the extent to which actors understood the instability of their respective currencies' purchasing power and whether their perceptions changed over time. The paper reveals that negotiations were never exclusively shaped and guided by concepts such as inflation or the 'cost of living' in both countries but that the importance of the concepts changed with the level of price fluctuations and institutional setting. Indices could achieve a dominant role only in exceptional circumstances due to their artificial and contestable nature, their neglect of the complexity of workers' job contexts and living environments, and their normative implications concerning wage demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education informatization (HEI) is an interdisciplinary field that examines the use and integration of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in higher education. This paper provides a bibliometric and visual analysis of the research trends, patterns, and topics in this field. Using the Web of Science database, the authors selected and analyzed 199 SCI and SSCI papers on HEI published from 2000 to 2023 by VOSviewer and CiteSpace software. The results indicate that the publication volume of HEI research has grown significantly in recent years. The author network shows the collaboration and contribution of different researchers and institutions, while the journal network reveals the multidisciplinary nature and scope of the field. The keyword network and the burst keyword analysis identify the main research themes and the emerging hot topics in HEI. The co-citation network of sources illustrates the theoretical and methodological foundations and influences of the field. The paper concludes with some implications and suggestions for future HEI research.

The Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) is a well-established U.S.-based research program administered by the National Cancer Institute to track the public access to and use of health information. This paper introduces a German research initiative, part of the International Studies to Investigate Global Health Information Trends (INSIGHTS) research consortium. This adaptation of the HINTS is important for initiating analyses of global health communication practices and comparing health information seeking behaviors (HISB) across nations to pinpoint potentials and challenges of health information provision and contribute to a deeper understanding of socio-contextual determinants of HISB. First cross-country comparisons revealed that the share of residents seeking for health information is high in the U.S. (80%) and Germany (74%), but different primary sources are used. Whereas a clear majority of U.S. residents chose the Internet to gather health information (74.9%), Germans most often turn to health professionals (48.0%). Socio-structural and health(care)-related predictors were found to contribute to the explanation of HISB in both countries, whereas information-related predictors were only relevant in Germany. The results indicate the need to engage in patient-provider communication to initiate HISB and to improve the access to information for residents with lower socio-economic backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Peer-reviewed research helps to advance many aspects of medical and surgical practice. This paper determines the main contributors tos joint arthroplasty research in terms of quantity and quality. Methods: A search of the Web of Science™ platform was conducted to identify arthroplasty articles published between 2001 and 2016. The number of articles and citations per article were analysed to assess the quantity and quality of research from individual countries. Results were standardised according to the country's populations and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Results: In total, 43,470 arthroplasty articles were published worldwide from January 2001 through December 2016. There was a 4.5-fold increase in global output during this time period. Twenty-two countries contributed at least 1% to the total number of publications. The United States of America published the most articles (35.40%), followed by England (10.31%) and Germany (10.03%). The USA had the highest absolute number of citations (50,777). Denmark had the highest average citation per item (8.76). When number of articles was normalized to population, Switzerland ranked the highest. When adjusted by GDP, Scotland ranked highest. When standardised according to GDP per capita, the People's Republic of China rated highest. The Journal of Arthroplasty produced the highest number of publications related to arthroplasty with 10.9% of total volume. Conclusion: There has been a substantial increase in worldwide publications relating to arthroplasty. The USA has produced the largest volume whilst Denmark has produced the highest quality publications. When output was normalized according to population and GDP, Switzerland and Scotland ranked highest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comparing the InsurTech ecosystems of the United States and Germany (Europe), there are significant regional differences in the choice of business models. While many InsurTechs in the United States have opted for the business model of a fully licensed insurer, this business model is much less common in Europe. In Europe, many InsurTechs seem to shy away from applying for a license as an insurer and limit themselves to the business model of a broker or a managing general agent. This paper analyzes the factors that influence an InsurTech's choice of business model when deciding whether or not to apply for an insurance license. It examines the impact of different local market environments on these decisions, as well as the role that access to venture capital plays in business model decisions and how regulators and their actions influence the decision‐making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to identify the most prolific countries in the field of special education and to discuss the widespread impact of their papers by taking into account the country's h-index. Through a bibliometric analysis, the data were collected in the Web of Science Core Collection category "Education, Special" in the Social Science Citation Index during 2011-2020. The 25 most prolific countries in the field of special education were determined in terms of paper productivity, and it was seen that the leading country was undisputedly the USA (54.42%). Meanwhile, a strong positive correlation was found between the h-index and the number of papers published by the countries (r=0.864). On the other hand, when the ranking in terms of the number of papers was reconfigured by the h-index, it was relatively changed. The possible reasons for this change for the countries with the most changing rankings were discussed by considering some definitive criteria such as the journal quartiles, the percentage of international and domestic, and the percentage of open access papers. This study reports a positive correlation between the quality and quantity in the field of special education for the publications of countries. It has been shown that where the positive correlation deviates, then especially, the journal quartiles, the percentage of international collaboration and the percentage of open access papers have a significant effect. The bibliometric findings may be useful to enrich the discussion about the widespread impact of papers and debate whether the use of h-index is acceptable for cross-national comparisons.

This article presents comments from economists on a paper by Alberto Giovannini regarding the problem of achieving the objectives of the convergence of inflationary expectations and stability of exchange rates. Richard N. Cooper comments that Giovannini rejects several hypothesis about the differences in interest rates between France and Italy and Germany. He suspects that the Eurofranc market was relatively thin during the period of Giovannini's estimations. To measure exchange risk, one might ask what the typical differentials on short-run notes of U.S. states have been in the absence of exchange risk but in the presence of credit risks and liquidity effects. On the other hand, Robert E. Hall talks about the U.S. as a successful monetary union. According to Hall the paper suggests that Europe today takes for granted that a conventional central bank is the ultimate goal of monetary union. Monetary policy would be executed by open-market operations in member-government securities or by obligations of the European central government. Moreover, Benjamin Friedman pointed out that the distribution of returns from taking a long position in francs had fatter tails than would be expected if the returns were normally distributed.

The study aims to understand the foremost challenges in the transition to online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study adopts the PRISMA approach to screening the selection of journal articles and review papers according to the research aims and the inclusion criteria. The journal articles and review papers were extracted and stored in Microsoft Excel and Google Scholar, Academic. Microsoft, Semantic Scholar, Elsevier, and Emerald Insight databases searched relevant documents using formulated keywords. A statistical technique was applied using the M.S. Excel analysis tool (PivotTable and an independent t-Test) to analyze data and determine the differences between teachers and students. The review revealed the evidence that the majority of the studies were primarily focused on the individual developing countries and results from other developing countries were not considered. In addition, the foremost challenges in the transition to online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic were inadequate skills and training, inadequate Internet/Infrastructure, lack of supporting resources and lack of online student engagement and feedback. Finally, the independent t-test reveals there is no statistically significant difference in challenges in the transition to online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both teachers and students encounter similar challenges. The systematic review raised concerns that higher learning needs to effectively implement long term strategies and support teachers and students in getting into online teaching and learning.

The higher education efficiency evaluation model using the data envelopment analysis method has interested many researchers. This paper uses bibliometric analysis on publications extracted from the Scopus database to provide a comprehensive overview of research publications on the measurement of higher education efficiency based on data envelopment analysis: its growth rate, major collaboration networks, the most important and popular research topic. A total of 169 related publications were collected and analyzed from 1988 to 2021. The analysis results show that: Publications published every year have increased sharply in the last six years; The quality of publications is relatively high as publications tend to be published in journals with high-ranking indexes; Countries with the most influence in studies on this topic are: Italy, China, Spain, the USA, and the United Kingdom; Authors with the most influence in this research direction are Agasisti T., Abbott M., Doucouliagos C., Avkiran N.K., and Johnes J.; The research cooperation among countries and among affiliations is not strong. Finally, the paper has provided recommendations for future studies based on the findings.

In recent years, Germany has had higher per capita exports to China than the United States has had. Some policymakers and analysts have argued that the United States should attempt to replicate Germany's success in exporting manufactured products to China, or that Germany's relative success at exporting to China refutes those who attribute the U.S. trade deficit with China to Chinese government policies. This paper analyzes trade data and finds that a majority of Germany's exports to China likely consist of (1) mechanical and electrical intermediate and capital goods that are likely used in China's exports to other countries and (2) luxury cars. The paper then argues that, given this export profile, Germany's example does not offer a way for the United States to substantially reduce its trade deficit with China in a manner consistent with reducing global imbalances, and is potentially consistent with a model of the world in which some governments' policies exacerbate global imbalances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we address the question of lethal school violence and suggest some preventive strategies. Previous studies in the field have been dominated of cases from the U.S. or Germany, but in this paper we instead focus on lethal violence which has occurred in Scandinavia. Previous research of lethal violence and prevention against it often stresses the complexity and limitations in research. Mainly since the impossibility to profile perpetrators or make lists of warnings signs. In addition, since lethal violence are rare events, there are methodologic challenges related to studies of the phenomena. In the study, the included cases are different acts of lethal violence, occurred 1961–2016 (n = 12). In the first analysis, the aim is to construct a typology, and in the second analysis the typology is used for analysing suitable prevention strategies. The study emphasizes the relation between perpetrator, victim, school and traceable motive in the typology, and the result concludes three different types of lethal violence. The first is based on interpersonal revenge, the second institutional revenge and the third societal revenge. Two prevention strategies seem suitable: one aiming at schools organizational structure and the second to architectural decisions in the design process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the determinants of stated individual support towards environmental action. The analysis is realized by means of an original Partial Least Squares Path model of Environmental Awareness-Social Capital-Action and it is based on survey data provided in the fifth wave of the World Values Survey (2005–2009) regarding 34.612 individuals from 42 different countries. Besides the global estimates obtained on the whole set of countries, the paper proposes a subsample analysis for developed and developing countries, as well as country analyses for four major economies: China, India, Germany and the United States. We find that environmental awareness and trust in not-for-profit organizations are important determinants of individual action in support of environmentally friendly policies. In general, trust in science and technology does not crowd-out individual support towards the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]