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This study examines when firms offer higher product quality. We measure product quality by examining four different inflight amenities provided by airlines: Wi-Fi, seat size, entertainment, and seat power. Using daily flight level data for over 800 routes and spanning nine weeks in third quarter of 2015 we observe that carriers were actively retrofitting aircraft to expand their inflight amenity offerings. We find significantly lower product quality (Wi-Fi, entertainment, and power) on more concentrated routes. While considerable research has been done on airline pricing, less well known is how airlines pursue other revenue streams from ancillary services. Recent work by Brueckner et al. (2015) explores the role of baggage fees in airline pricing. We examine additional revenue streams provided by Wi-Fi and entertainment inflight amenities. We find that carriers are lowering the posted base ticket prices on routes with Wi-Fi and entertainment and then charging passengers for using these amenities. The IV price estimates reveal that magnitude of the posted fare reduction is larger than the additional revenue generated from the inflight amenity.

I measure the impact of rarity on price. The main challenge is that usually rarity is positively correlated with quality. In addition, sometimes price also affects rarity. To overcome these difficulties, I study an NBA digital collectibles market called NBA Top Shot where those concerns are well addressed. By analyzing novel and rich data sets, I find that the elasticity of price with respect to circulation is -0.74 on average. I also find that less popular products are more elastic than more popular products are.

We show that banks with high environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings issue fewer mortgages in poor localities—in number and dollar amount—than banks with low ESG ratings. This lending disparity happens at both the county and census tract level, worsens in disaster areas of severe hurricane strikes, is robust to alternative ESG ratings (including using only the social (S) component), and cannot be explained by banks’ differential deposit networks. We find no difference in mortgage default rates between high- and low-ESG banks, rejecting an alternative explanation based on differential credit screening quality. We report a complementary, not substitution, relation between high-ESG banks’ mortgage lending and their community development investments (like affordable housing projects) in poor localities. Loan-application-level analyses confirm that high-ESG banks are more likely than low-ESG banks to reject mortgage loans in poor neighborhoods. The evidence hints at social wash: banks deploy prosocial rhetoric and symbolic actions while not lending much in disadvantaged communities, the social function they arguably ought to perform. Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) examinations partially undo the social wash effect.

The emergence of unsupervised generative models has resulted in greater performance in image and video generation tasks. However, existing generative models pose huge challenges in high-quality video generation process due to blurry and inconsistent results. In this paper, we introduce a novel generative framework named Dynamic Generative Adversarial Networks (Dynamic GAN) model for regulating the adversarial training and generating photorealistic high-quality sign language videos from skeletal poses. The proposed model comprises three stages of development such as generator network, classification and image quality enhancement and discriminator network. In the generator fold, the model generates samples similar to real images using random noise vectors, the classification of generated samples are carried out using the VGG-19 model and novel techniques are employed for improving the quality of generated samples in the second fold of the model and finally the discriminator networks fold identifies the real or fake samples. Unlike, existing approaches the proposed novel framework produces photo-realistic video quality results without using any animation or avatar approaches. To evaluate the model performance qualitatively and quantitatively, the proposed model has been evaluated using three benchmark datasets that yield plausible results. The datasets are RWTH-PHOENIX-Weather 2014T dataset, and our self-created dataset for Indian Sign Language (ISL-CSLTR), and the UCF-101 Action Recognition dataset. The output samples and performance metrics show the outstanding performance of our model.

Impartial selection has recently received much attention within the multi-agent systems community. The task is, given a directed graph representing nominations to the members of a community by other members, to select the member with the highest number of nominations. This seemingly trivial goal becomes challenging when there is an additional impartiality constraint, requiring that no single member can influence her chance of being selected. Recent progress has identified impartial selection rules with optimal approximation ratios. Moreover, it was noted that worst-case instances are graphs with few vertices. Motivated by this fact, we propose the study of additive approximation, the difference between the highest number of nominations and the number of nominations of the selected member, as an alternative measure of the quality of impartial selection. Our positive results include two randomized impartial selection mechanisms which have additive approximation guarantees of $\Theta(\sqrt{n})$ and $\Theta(n^{2/3}\ln^{1/3}n)$ for the two most studied models in the literature, where $n$ denotes the community size. We complement our positive results by providing negative results for various cases. First, we provide a characterization for the interesting class of strong sample mechanisms, which allows us to obtain lower bounds of $n-2$, and of $\Omega(\sqrt{n})$ for their deterministic and randomized variants respectively. Finally, we present a general lower bound of $2$ for all deterministic impartial mechanisms., Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures. A preliminary version appeared in SAGT '19. Corrected a minor bug in Theorem 3 and typos. Theory Comput Syst (2022)

A reelection-seeking politician makes a policy decision that can reveal her private information. This information bears on whether her political orientation and capabilities will be a good fit to future circumstances. We study how she may choose inappropriate policies to hide her information, even in the absence of specific conflicts of interests, and how voters' conformism affects her incentives to do so. Conformism is independent from policies and from voters' perceptions. Yet we identify a 'conformism advantage' for the incumbent that exists only when there is also an incumbency advantage. Conformism changes the incentives of the incumbent and favors the emergence of an efficient, separating equilibrium. It may even eliminate the pooling equilibrium (that can consist in inefficient persistence). Conformism has a mixed impact on social welfare however: it improves policy choices and the information available to independent voters, but fosters inefficient reelection in the face of a stronger opponent. When the incumbent is 'altruistic' and values social welfare even when not in power, she partly internalizes this latter effect. The impact of conformism is then non monotonous.

IntroductionCOVID-19-related (vs. non-related) articles appear to be more expeditiously processed and published in peer-reviewed journals. We aimed to evaluate: (i) whether COVID-19-related preprints were favored for publication, (ii) preprinting trends and public discussion of the preprints, and (iii) the relationship between the publication topic (COVID-19-related or not) and quality issues.MethodsManuscripts deposited at bioRxiv and medRxiv between January 1 and September 27 were assessed for the probability of publishing in peer-reviewed journals, and those published were evaluated for submission-to-acceptance time. The extent of public discussion was assessed based on Altmetric and Disqus data. The Retraction Watch Database and PubMed were used to explore the retraction of COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 articles and preprints.ResultsWith adjustment for the preprinting server and number of deposited versions, COVID-19-related preprints were more likely to be published within 120 days since the deposition of the first version (OR=2.04, 95%CI 1.87-2.23) as well as over the entire observed period (OR=1.42, 95%CI 1.33-1.52). Submission-to-acceptance was by 38.67 days (95%CI 34.96-42.39) shorter for COVID-19 articles. Public discussion of preprints was modest and COVID-19 articles were overrepresented in the pool of retracted articles in 2020.ConclusionCurrent data suggest a preference for publication of COVID-19-related preprints over the observed period.

1 -ABSTRACTDigital light microscopy provides powerful tools for quantitatively probing the real-time dynamics of subcellular structures. While the power of modern microscopy techniques is undeniable, rigorous record-keeping and quality control are required to ensure that imaging data may be properly interpreted (quality), reproduced (reproducibility), and used to extract reliable information and scientific knowledge which can be shared for further analysis (value). Keeping notes on microscopy experiments and quality control procedures ought to be straightforward, as the microscope is a machine whose components are defined and the performance measurable. Nevertheless, to this date, no universally adopted community-driven specifications exist that delineate the required information about the microscope hardware and acquisition settings (i.e., microscopy “data provenance” metadata) and the minimally accepted calibration metrics (i.e., microscopy quality control metadata) that should be automatically recorded by both commercial microscope manufacturers and customized microscope developers. In the absence of agreed guidelines, it is inherently difficult for scientists to create comprehensive records of imaging experiments and ensure the quality of resulting image data or for manufacturers to incorporate standardized reporting and performance metrics. To add to the confusion, microscopy experiments vary greatly in aim and complexity, ranging from purely descriptive work to complex, quantitative and even sub-resolution studies that require more detailed reporting and quality control measures.To solve this problem, the4D Nucleome Initiative (4DN) (1, 2) Imaging Standards Working Group (IWG), working in conjunction with theBioImagingNorthAmerica (BINA) Quality Control and Data Management Working Group (QC-DM-WG) (3), here propose light Microscopy Metadata specifications that scale with experimental intent and with the complexity of the instrumentation and analytical requirements. They consist of a revision of the Core of the Open Microscopy Environment (OME) Data Model, which forms the basis for the widely adopted Bio-Formats library (4–6), accompanied by a suite of three extensions, each with three tiers, allowing the classification of imaging experiments into levels of increasing imaging and analytical complexity (7, 8). Hence these specifications not only provide an OME-based comprehensive set of metadata elements that should be recorded, but they also specify which subset of the full list should be recorded for a given experimental tier. In order to evaluate the extent of community interest, an extensive outreach effort was conducted to present the proposed metadata specifications to members of several core-facilities and international bioimaging initiatives including theEuropeanLightMicroscopyInitiative (ELMI),GlobalBioImaging (GBI), andEuropeanMolecularBiologyLaboratory (EMBL) -EuropeanBioinformaticsInstitute (EBI). Consequently, close ties were established between our endeavour and the undertakings of the recently establishedQUAlity Assessment andREProducibility for Instruments and Images inLightMicroscopy global community initiative (9). As a result this flexible 4DN-BINA-OME (NBO namespace) framework (7, 8) represents a turning point towards achieving community-driven Microscopy Metadata standards that will increase data fidelity, improve repeatability and reproducibility, ease future analysis and facilitate the verifiable comparison of different datasets, experimental setups, and assays, and it demonstrates the method for future extensions. Such universally accepted microscopy standards would serve a similar purpose as the Encode guidelines successfully adopted by the genomic community (10, 11). The intention of this proposal is therefore to encourage participation, critiques and contributions from the entire imaging community and all stakeholders, including research and imaging scientists, facility personnel, instrument manufacturers, software developers, standards organizations, scientific publishers, and funders.

Previous research has successfully used basic psychological need satisfaction and achievement goal approaches for describing the motivations of university faculty for teaching and for explaining differences in faculty experiences, success, and learning. However, the interplay between these motivational constructs has been largely ignored, with only faculty from specific educational contexts being studied—neglecting those from other higher education systems and institution types that potentially differ in the configurations, levels, and effects of their motivations. As combining both approaches and examining multiple educational contexts is essential for a comprehensive theoretical understanding of faculty motivation and generalizable results, we conducted an international study including 1410 university faculty members from German, Indian, and US-American teaching and research universities. Aside from need satisfaction and achievement goals, we measured their positive affect, teaching quality, and professional learning. Results demonstrated measurement invariance of basic need and achievement goal scales regarding language, higher education context, and institution type. We found small differences in motivations between the three higher education contexts and negligible differences between institution types. Task, learning, and relational goals were positively and work avoidance goals were negatively linked to the outcome variables. Need satisfaction sensibly explained differences in pursuit of these goals, and—directly and indirectly through the goals—also the outcome variables. Taken together, these results provide international evidence for the importance of faculty motivation for teaching and illuminate how need satisfaction is relevant for goal pursuit, while both motivation approaches uniquely matter for faculty experiences, success, and learning.

While studies have indicated that visual feedback promotes skill acquisition and motor learning in controlled settings and for various sports, less is known about its feasibility in physical education, which has specific needs and conditions. For this reason, a systematic literature review was conducted regarding video-based visual feedback in physical education. Out of 2030 initially examined studies, 11 matched the selection and quality criteria. The goal was to determine whether visual feedback can be effective regarding motor learning in physical education in primary and secondary schools, and to investigate whether different visual feedback variants (expert modeling and self-modeling), supported by verbal feedback, are more effective than verbal feedback alone. Subsequently, the different conditions (e.g., age, group size, duration) of the included studies were evaluated for their suitability for everyday applications. Video-based visual feedback seems to be effective to enhance motor learning in physical education and seems to be more effective than solely verbal feedback. However, the results show that the specific conditions (class size, scheduled lessons, available time, technical equipment, the digital literacy of teachers, and data protection) of a school environment must be considered before implementing visual video feedback in daily practice.

BACKGROUND More patients are turning to the internet for their health information than ever before. This is a growing problem as it is well recognized that medical information on the internet is highly variable. We assessed the quality of information on the internet regarding the anti-reflux procedure, Nissen Fundoplication. Three commonly used measures of website quality are the Health On the Net code, the Journal of the American Medical Association Benchmark criteria, and the DISCERN tool. The HON code is a seal of approval awarded by an independent organization where the JAMA Benchmark and DISCERN Tool are a set of standards that can be utilized by an internet user or webpage creator. METHODS We performed a Google search using the term "Nissen Fundoplication", where we analyzed the top 75 websites. We included English language websites and excluded advertisements, websites for medical professionals, duplicates, and requiring a login. Each website included was evaluated for presence of the HON seal and scored with the JAMA Benchmark and DISCERN criteria to determine quality. RESULTS Only 16.28% of websites were found to be HON code certified. The average JAMA benchmark score was 1.23, with 9.3% websites scoring the maximum 4 points and 39.53% receiving a score of 0. The average DISCERN score was 34.65 out of a total possible score of 75, where the mean score for the overall quality of the website (question 16) was 2.19 out of a maximal score of 5. CONCLUSION This study, using 3 commonly used validated measures, has found that the quality of online information pertaining to Nissen Fundoplication is sorely lacking. The implications of these results are twofold as an important reference for institutions to update their source material and a guide when providing patients with adequate resources.

Nowadays, the role of hybridization within the wider manufacturing ecosystem gains significant momentum with multiple commercial solutions already available on the market. Despite the very promising benefits of combining and selectively exploiting the advantages of additive and subtractive technologies on the same machine, hybrid additive manufacturing is far from reaching its full potential. One of the central limitations of existing hybrid process chains is the lack of a harmonized, structured and automated workflows to support an adaptive manufacturing strategy. This work is motivated by the need to bridge this gap and to capture the logic behind an adaptive hybrid process chain with the aim to support the achievement of enhanced product quality and improved operational efficiency in hybrid additive manufacturing. The paper discusses the implementation of a hybrid CAx platform and the underlying methodology aiming at the dynamic reduction of variabilities associated with the laser metal deposition process. The hybrid workflow identifies the most adapted sequence and planning of additive and subtractive operations while considering part inspection as an in-envelope functionality to quantify the geometrical and dimensional part deviations and to trigger the regenerative mechanism. The methodology is demonstrated on a hybrid machine by deploying laser ablation for the in situ removal of build deviations and an adapted deposition operation as part of a regenerative strategy leading to higher part confidence.

Economic activities, technological innovation and diffusion, energy consumption and financial development have been significant in BRICS countries over the last three decades. Corresponding to it, BRICS have been facing substantial environmental deterioration. The growth of such factors needs a comprehensive analysis. Hence, this paper examines the impact of technological innovation and diffusion, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and financial development on ecological footprint under the Kuznets framework in BRICS countries over the time from 1990 to 2018. To confirm the long- and short-run relationship, we apply the second-generation and heterogeneity panel techniques. Where, to measure the impact of technological innovation and diffusion, energy consumption and financial development and other control variable on ecological footprint we use Westerlund Co-integration and pooled mean group (PMG) model for this interest. The results reveal that technological diffusion and non-renewable energy consumption deteriorate environmental quality in the long run. In contrast, renewable energy and technological innovation improve environmental sustainability/quality significantly. Further, results also confirm the existence of the EKC hypothesis. The study suggests that the government should encourage technological innovation and renewable energy consumption to improve environmental quality and achieve the sustainable development goal (SDG).

Uncertainty of measurement (UM) provides a quantitative estimate for traceability of test results. The Nordtest guide was applied for calculating UM of 26 analytes. For this, internal and external quality control data from July 2019 to April 2020 was used. UM of test results were compared to %TEa values of CLIA '2019, RiliBÄK, and Ricos. It was observed that UM for all analytes were below %TEa values of RiliBÄK. UM value of Albumin, Calcium and Sodium could not meet CLIA '2019 and Ricos guidelines. For results of Albumin, Calcium and Sodium to be traceable, more frequent quality control protocols resulted in decrease in bias. Quality goals were set for these three parameters. This helped in reduction of quality control cycles and optimum utilization of resources.

Mental health services are placing a greater emphasis on wellbeing and recovery. The current research investigated if positive psychology interventions (PPIs) increase peoples’ subjective wellbeing and reduce clinical depression. A systematic methodological review was conducted on randomized-control-trials with people attending clinical services. Five databases were searched. A hand search was then completed on the reference lists of the identified articles and the associated journals. Eleven research interventions were reviewed. PPIs were found to significantly increase wellbeing, relative to controls and there were fewer studies indicating a difference in decreasing depression. However, subsequent analysis revealed that the interventions were heterogeneous which limits the drawing of definitive systematic conclusions. A methodological evaluation also found that there were recurring issues: in delivering the interventions, measuring subjective wellbeing, and applying the design. Thus, the methodological quality of the research interventions, as measured by the current review was low. There is emerging evidence that PPIs improve peoples’ mental health. However, there is scope to standardize and to improve the quality of the research interventions.

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Die Gefährdungsbeurteilung psychischer Belastung hat zum Ziel, die durch die Arbeit verbundenen Gefährdungen zu beurteilen, um Maßnahmen zur gesundheitsgerechten Gestaltung der Arbeit abzuleiten. Allerdings ist das Angebot an Verfahren für die Ermittlung der psychischen Belastung umfangreich und unübersichtlich. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird für das Sozial- und Gesundheitswesen ein reduzierter und strukturierter Überblick an Instrumenten vorgestellt. Methode Für die Identifizierung geeigneter Instrumente wurde eine umfangreiche Suche durchgeführt. Vor Recherchebeginn wurden Kriterien definiert, um die identifizierten Instrumente auf Eignung zu prüfen. Zum einen gab es Mindestanforderungen, die erfüllt sein mussten, damit das Instrument in den Review-Prozess aufgenommen wurde, und zum anderen Strukturierungskriterien, die sich in beschreibende und bewertende Aspekte unterteilten. Ergebnisse Die Recherche identifizierte insgesamt 83 Instrumente für die Gefährdungsbeurteilung psychischer Belastung (GBU Psyche); nach der ersten Sichtung wurden 58 von diesen zur weiteren Eignung im Review-Prozess übernommen. Abgeschlossen wurde das Gesamtreview bisher für 44 Verfahren aus der unsystematischen Suche. Davon wurden 19 Verfahren als geeignet eingestuft und in einer Übersichtsmatrix strukturiert dargestellt. Das Review für die 14 Verfahren aus der systematischen Recherche erfolgt voraussichtlich bis Mitte 2022 und ist Teil eines kontinuierlichen Review-Prozesses. Diskussion Die Vielzahl an identifizierten Verfahren für die GBU Psyche (Gefährdungsbeurteilung psychischer Belastung) zeigt deutlich die Sinnhaftigkeit und Relevanz, eine begrenzte, praxiserprobte sowie qualitätsgesicherte Auswahl an Instrumenten zu treffen. Die ebenfalls in diesem Artikel dargestellten Kriterien zur Bewertung der Instrumente, machen die getroffene Auswahl transparent.

The biopharmaceutical industry is evolving with a shift in focus from recombinant proteins and antibodies towards more complex cell and gene therapies. To be competitive globally, biomanufacturers need to focus on aligning with global standards with regard to drug quality, reducing manufacturing failures and delivering drugs to market quickly. Building these capabilities requires a multifaceted approach that includes improvements in operations, quality compliance, and control strategies. To address these needs, the US Pharmacopeia (USP), the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) India, and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) held a symposium to discuss the requirements and gaps in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors in India and other developing countries. A panel of experts from academia, manufacturing, and governmental agencies identified several drivers needed for capability building, including a skilled workforce, public–private partnerships, advanced manufacturing technologies, novel biologics, and favorable policies. This article summarizes the recommendations put forward by this panel.

Though infrastructure investment has been shown to enable growth in many countries, it appears not to be the case for many African countries and consequently is failing to help bridge the economic growth shortfall of the continent. Why is that, and how could it be reversed? We address this matter by using a Panel Threshold Regression of real economic growth on major infrastructure types, of 42 African countries, from 2000 to 2015. We find that electricity, water, transport and, to a lesser extent, information and communication technology investments have identifiable thresholds for these countries, with upper- and lower-middle-income countries being nearer to these thresholds than low-income countries. Furthermore, we find infrastructure quality to have more economic impact than infrastructure access for resource-endowed countries that use high intensity production form than for less-resource-endowed ones that deploy low intensity production form. And both infrastructure access and quality have more economic impacts for landlocked countries than for coastal countries. Overall, our findings suggest several lessons on how African countries can deploy infrastructure funds much more productively, going forward.

Purpose of Review To summarize key recent evidence regarding the impact of Home-Based Palliative Care (HBPalC) and to highlight opportunities for future study. Recent Findings HBPalC is cost effective and benefits patients and caregivers across the health care continuum. Summary High-quality data support the cost effectiveness of HBPalC. A growing literature base supports the benefits of HBPalC for patients, families, and informal caregivers by alleviating symptoms, reducing unwanted hospitalizations, and offering support at the end of life. Numerous innovative HBPalC models exist, but there is a lack of high-quality evidence comparing specific models across subpopulations. Our wide literature search captured no research regarding HBPalC for underserved populations. Further research will also be necessary to guide quality standards for HBPalC.

Lean is a term that was first used in 1988 with reference to a production system. It is a highly acknowledged production method that focuses on cutting out waste, at the same time ensuring the same quality. An emerging field known as industry 4.0 has recently evolved, with the goal of incorporating current smart technologies into the industrial process. Due to the novel nature of the subject, very little evidence is there to suggest that there is a link between industry 4.0 and Lean production. The study aims to find empirical evidence to show the direct relationship between the introduction of industry 4.0 and Lean process and to find the impact it has on organizational performance. The research is based on data gathered in the form of a survey questionnaire. The measurement scale used for the questionnaire was a five-point Likert scale, the primary respondents of the questionnaires were production engineers, service engineers and sales representatives. The data was analyzed using IBM SPSS software and a correlation between industry 4.0 technologies and Lean manufacturing was obtained.

Localisation, i.e. estimation of one’s position in a given environment is a crucial element of many mobile systems, manned and unmanned. Due to the high demand for autonomous exploration, patrolling and inspection services and a rapid improvement of batteries, sensors and machine learning algorithms, the quality of localisation becomes even more important for smart robotic systems. The underwater domain is a very challenging environment due to the water blocking most of the signals over short distances. Recent results in localisation techniques for underwater vehicles are summarised in two principal categories: passive techniques, which strive to provide the best estimation of the vehicle’s position (global or local) given the past and current information from sensors, and active techniques, which additionally produce guidance output that is expected to minimise the uncertainty of estimated position.

The beauty of science lies within its core assumption that it seeks to identify the truth, and as such, the truth stands alone and does not depend on the person who proclaims it. However, people's proclivity to succumb to various stereotypes is well known, and the scientific world may not be exceptionally immune to the tendency to judge a book by its cover. An interesting example is geographical bias, which includes distorted judgments based on the geographical origin of, inter alia, the given work and not its actual quality or value. Here, we tested whether both laypersons (N = 1532) and scientists (N = 480) are prone to geographical bias when rating scientific projects in one of three scientific fields (i.e., biology, philosophy, or psychology). We found that all participants favored more biological projects from the USA than China; in particular, expert biologists were more willing to grant further funding to Americans. In philosophy, however, laypersons rated Chinese projects as better than projects from the USA. Our findings indicate that geographical biases affect public perception of research and influence the results of grant competitions.

Background A central role in the care of patients with osteoarthritis has the family practice. The aim of this analysis is to assess the association between the quality of family practice care from the osteoarthritis patients' perspectives and their health-related quality of life, disease-specific symptoms, and physical function. Method 111 patients suffering from cox- and/or gonosteoarthritis at the age of 65 or older had been recruited from family practices in Saxony and Bavaria. The participants received a paper-based questionnaire that assessed their sociodemographic data, the patients' level of depression (PHQ-9), physical activity, health-related quality of life (EQ-5D with EQ-VAS), as well as the quality of care in family practice from the patients' perspectives (PACIC short form). Furthermore, disease-specific symptoms (pain, stiffness) and physical function of patients with osteoarthritis were investigated (WOMAC). The analysis was performed with multiple linear regression models. Results A greater extent of depression was associated with stronger pain (beta=0,378; 95% CI [0,180; 0,576]), more stiffness of the joints (beta=0,223; 95% CI [0,135; 0,310]), and worse physical function (beta=1,628; 95% CI [0,908; 2,348]). The analysis also showed that older (beta=-0,901; 95% CI [-1,705; -0,097]), more depressive (beta=-1,654; 95% CI [-2,820; -0,488]) osteoarthritis patients were associated with a lower health-related quality of life. A statistically significant association between the quality of family practice care from the patients' perspectives and their health-related quality of life, disease-specific symptoms, and physical function could not be detected. Conclusions Previous literature provides evidence for an association between the quality of care of patients with a chronic illness and their quality of life or other health outcomes. The results of this research work did not align with these findings. Since depression was associated with decreased health-related quality of life and more severe complaints of patients suffering from osteoarthritis, potential depressive comorbidity should not be disregarded in the health care of this patient group and should be treated if necessary.

Today’s manufacturing systems are becoming increasingly complex, dynamic and connected hence continual prediction of manufactured product quality is a key to look for patterns that can eventually lead to improved accuracy and productivity. Recent developments in artificial intelligence, especially machine learning have shown great potential to transform the manufacturing domain through analytics for processing vast amounts of manufacturing data generated (Esmaeilian et al. in J Manuf Syst 39:79–100, 2016). Although prediction models have been built to predict product quality with good accuracy, they assume that same distribution applies on training data and testing data hence fail to produce satisfying results when machines work under different conditions with varying data distribution. Naive re-collection and re-annotation of data for each new working condition can be very expensive thus is not a feasible solution. To cope with this problem, we adopt transfer learning approach called domain adaptation to transfer the knowledge learned from one labelled operating condition (source domain) to another operating condition (target domain) without labels. Particularly, we propose an end-to-end framework for cross-machine product quality prediction, which is able to alleviate domain shift problem. To facilitate the cross-machine prediction performance, a systematic feature selection approach is designed and integrated to generate most suitable feature set to characterize the collected data. Comprehensive experiments have been conducted using actual manufacturing data and the results demonstrate significant improvement on cross-machine product quality prediction as compared to conventional techniques.

Creating residencies that produce psychiatrists who are skilled and interested in working in under resourced areas, especially in community and rural settings is challenging. State and private agency collaboration can be an effective approach to enhancing such training. These resources for education have the goals of improving access and services, addressing workforce shortages and improving physician retention. They can provide flexibility to implement innovations that enhance training and address community needs. This article describes the implementation of a psychiatry residency at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine. Funding was obtained from state and private initiatives. This paper describes the implementation. Feedback was positive at all levels. This program illustrates some of the advantages of utilizing alternate funding in creating high quality residencies that are integral to the community, produce skilled collaborative physicians, provide necessary care that addresses specific community needs and potentially address workforce issues in underserved areas.

Wireless body area networks (WBANs), mobile devices and cloud computing are the backbone technologies of pervasive healthcare systems. WBANs ecosystem possesses certain limitations such as wireless communication, security, data validation, data consistency and many more, that are needed to be addressed for an efficient WBAN system. Consequently, Cloud Computing is used to overcome WBAN’s limitations. The ubiquitous and scalable nature of the Cloud makes it the most suitable architecture to integrate with WBAN for delivering an efficient pervasive healthcare ecosystem. Although, researchers are focusing on integrating cloud and WBAN system, there is a void of systematic analysis in terms of technology's state-of- the-art, and research directions for improving Quality of Services (QoS). As an endeavour to fill this void, the authors propose this review on Cloud-assisted WBAN ecosystem based on the classical systematic review approach with few modifications. We investigate the role, need and use of Cloud in empowering WBAN. Also, we address various aspects of this integrated ecosystem such as definitions, technologies, Quality of Service (QoS) parameters, and existing solutions. Furthermore, this study helps the readers identify and select the research potentials in their respective areas. This paper presents the first study on Cloudlet-enabled WBAN system using a systematic review approach.

Leadership is of paramount importance to any organization, as leaders can set the tone for the organization’s employees. The path to leadership in childcare can be markedly different from other professions, as there is no qualifying criteria; however, previous research has identified that for leaders to be effective they must possess skills, characteristics, and traits of effective leadership. The present study used The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) (in Bass and Avolio, Multifactor leadership questionnaire (TM), Mind Garden, Inc., Menlo Park, 1995) with childcare directors to determine their self-identified leadership styles including transformational, transactional, and passive/avoidant to determine if their leadership style was consistent with recommendations from the field. Results suggest that childcare directors who remain in the role of managers (displaying either transactional or passive/avoidant leadership styles) do not provide the leadership needed to provide a high quality of education for young children, which is consistent with previous research. This research echoes concern from the field for credentialing of childcare directors.

Maternal psychological distress, such as depression, anxiety or stress can exert enduring influences on child’s well-being through affecting mother’s caregiving quality. The present research explored the moderating effect of marital dissatisfaction on the relationship between maternal psychological distress (depression, anxiety and stress) and maternal sensitivity and availability in Iranian mothers. Sample consisted of 189 mothers who had a child aged 2 to 5 years. It was hypothesized that marital dissatisfaction would strengthen the negative relationship between maternal psychological distress and maternal caregiving quality. Participants filled maternal caregiving quality scale, ENRICH marital satisfaction scale and depression, anxiety & stress scales. Multiple indicator multiple cause model and hierarchical multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Results show that there is negative correlation between maternal caregiving quality and marital dissatisfaction. There is also negative correlation between maternal sensitivity with stress, anxiety and depression. Moreover, results show that marital dissatisfaction strengthens the negative relationship between maternal psychological distress (depression, anxiety and stress) and maternal caregiving quality (sensitivity and availability). This implies that when marital dissatisfaction is high, more psychological distress in mothers leads to reduced maternal caregiving quality. On the other hand, a satisfactory marital relationship acts as a buffer against the negative effects of high psychological distress on mother–child relationship and interaction. The study results suggest that in psychological interventions with mothers suffering from depressive, anxiety or stress symptoms, improving marital relationship affects maternal caregiving quality significantly.

Facebook has been widely used among students, not only for socializing, but also for educational purposes. However, it is much less clear whether educational usage of Facebook would be beneficial for student academic achievement, especially in distance education. This paper examined whether different types of educational usage of Facebook would be differentially connected with academic achievement of distance university students. Unlike previous studies, we distinguished between the quantity and the quality of educational usage of Facebook: The former is concerned with time spent, while the latter includes three types of educational utilities offered by Facebook (communication, collaboration, and resource sharing). Taking a self-determination theory perspective, we also examined whether the connection between different types of educational usage of Facebook and academic achievement would be mediated by basic needs satisfaction in distance study. A total of 274 distance university students participated in an online survey. A path analysis demonstrated that different types of educational usage of Facebook and academic achievement were not directly associated. However, a mediation analysis showed that competence need satisfaction (and no other needs) fully mediated some linkages: time spent to achievement, communication to achievement, and resource sharing to achievement. Findings and implications of this paper are discussed.

The question of how citation impact relates to academic quality accompanies every decade in bibliometric research. Although experts have employed more complex conceptions of research quality for responsible evaluation, detailed analyses of how impact relates to dimensions such as methodological rigor are lacking. But the increasing number of formal guidelines for biomedical research offer not only the potential to understand the social dynamics of standardization, but also their relations to scientific rewards. By using data from Web of Science and PubMed, this study focuses on systematic reviews from biomedicine and compares this genre with those systematic reviews that applied the PRISMA reporting standard. Besides providing an overview about growth and location, it was found that the latter, more standardized type of systematic review accumulates more citations. It is argued that instead of reinforcing the traditional conception that higher impact represents higher quality, highly prolific authors could be more inclined to develop and apply new standards than more average researchers. In addition, research evaluation would benefit from a more nuanced conception of scientific output which respects the intellectual role of various document types.

Certain aspects of medical education have transitioned to virtual platforms since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This commentary explores advantages and barriers to teledermatology in medical education, which has the potential to reach an extensive pool of learners and preceptors but may be limited by logistical and security considerations of a virtual platform. Dermatology in particular lends itself to an online platform as a highly visual specialty, although clinical exam would be highly dependent on quality of images captured. With teledermatology, learners can begin developing an approach to delivering care remotely, and becoming accustomed to virtual platforms.

This study examines the quality of non-financial disclosure in Strategic Reports, focusing on non-financial key performance indicators (NFKPIs). A vital issue for NFKPI disclosure quality deals with overtime comparability. As NFKPI disclosure is mainly based on managers’ discretional choices regarding which indicators to disclose and how, we argue that corporate governance could play a key role in affecting disclosure practices. The analysis of a sample of UK listed companies from different industries reveals that most companies consistently report NFKPIs and that disclosure practices are influenced by the quality of the board of directors. Additional analyses indicate that among board characteristics, experience in financial key roles is the most effective. Further, intangible intensity is found to be positively associated with NFKPI consistency. Finally, more leveraged and less profitable firms seem to pay more attention to disclosure consistency, supporting the argument that they are subject to more severe scrutiny. This study is the first to examine the relationship between governance quality and NFKPI consistency. It enlarges previous evidence on the relation between corporate governance and disclosure by supporting the role of the board of directors in monitoring non-financial reporting.

The lack of studies that examined the influence of government effectiveness on environmental pollution and whether it formulates the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis motivated this research. Therefore, this research examines the role of government effectiveness on CO2 emission in 170 countries. To achieve the research aims, the system generalized method of moment model is applied while categorizing the countries into three groups: namely high, moderate, and low government effectiveness countries. The major results of this research revealed that government effectiveness reduces CO2 emission significantly in the overall sample, high and the moderate government effectiveness countries while it is not significant in the low government effectiveness countries. Moreover, the EKC hypothesis is present in the overall sample high and moderate government effectiveness countries while the hypothesis does not exist in the low government effectiveness countries. Therefore, the outcome of this research shows clearly that effectiveness of the government in terms of independence from political pressures, the quality of policy preparation and application, and the reliability of the government's commitment to such policies is an important element that determines the EKC hypothesis. From the outcome of this research, a number of policy implications were provided for the investigated countries.

This paper takes smart city as an example, combining with online and offline aggregation services to explore the possible way out of county community governance innovation. In this white paper, community governance of online and offline aggregate services depends on the various assets and functions of the community, acts in collaboration with community stakeholders, and prevents and resists contingencies. Defined as a community with the ability to self-organize, self-adapt, and self-heal Interference or disaster to achieve sustainable development. This paper puts forward the benefit evaluation method of community governance, which is used to evaluate the implementation effect of online and offline community governance system. Taking a county as an example, this paper analyzes the impact of the challenge and novelty of this model on urban construction. Research shows that in the previous community governance model, about 50% of the people think that the managers of all institutions related to public welfare should not take management as the purpose, and even nearly 70% of the respondents also stressed that these institutions should not be allowed to collect legal management fees or commission fees. At the same time, 40% of respondents admitted that they did not trust the quality of free services provided by public welfare agencies. The online and offline aggregate service modes adopted by the city not only work well in the city's economy, but also increase the city's GDP by 12%. This is 3.6% higher than in the previous mode. In addition, this model will accelerate the process of democratic construction and improve people's happiness index.

Synoptic operative reporting has been used as a solution to the poor quality of narrative reports. The aim of this study was to develop operative report quality indicators for the laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy and to generate parameters by which these reports can be evaluated and improved. A Delphi protocol was used to determine quality indicators for LSG. Bariatric surgeons across Canada were recruited along with key physician stakeholders to participate via a secure web-based platform. Transferrable consensus items for LSG from previously developed Roux-en-Y gastric bypass operative indictors were put forward for consideration. Participants also initially submitted potential QIs. These were grouped by theme. Items were rated on 5-point Likert scales in subsequent rounds. Scores of 70% or higher were used for inclusion and 30% or less denoted exclusion. Elements scoring 30% to 70% agreement were recirculated by runoff in subsequent rounds to generate the final list of quality indicators. Seven bariatric surgeons, representing all regions preforming LSG in Canada, were invited to participate in the Delphi group. Multidisciplinary invitees included one academic minimally invasive/acute care surgeon, one tertiary abdominal radiologist, and one academic gastroenterologist with bariatric expertise. Two rounds were required to achieve consensus. Both rounds achieved a 100% response (10/10). In round 1, forty items reached consensus. In Round 2, an additional 28 items reached consensus, with three items excluded, bringing the total number of quality indicators to 65. This study establishes consensus-derived multidisciplinary quality indicators for LSG operative reports. Application of these findings aims to advance the quality and completeness of operative reporting in LSG in order to improve communication of important surgical details and quality measures to the multidisciplinary team involved in bariatric surgery care.

To better account for how social–ecological legacies of social and ecological systems jointly shape the current composition, the quality and quantity of nature’s contribution to people (NCPs), we integrate the concept of NCP co-production into social–ecological system thinking. Our expanded framework highlights how NCP co-production is frequently entangled within its social–ecological context, such as legacies, current resources and social activities. Additionally, we underline the relevance of non-material and material dimensions of resources in NCP co-production. To illustrate the potential of this expanded framework, we explore its application to an agricultural system of the French Northern Alps. We conclude that this framework (1) facilitates the understanding of society–ecosystem interactions in a specific regional social–ecological context; (2) helps to better conceptualise the interdependencies between resources and social activities; (3) demonstrates how current rule sets to organise social–ecological legacies affect the entire NCP co-production chain. The framework’s further implementation requires more research to better understand the complex interlinkages between the social and the ecological subsystems that underpin socioeconomic activities.

Hyperspectral imaging has been extensively investigated as an emerging, promising technique for measuring the quality and protection of horticultural and agricultural products over the past 20 years. This technology evolved from remote sensing and joins the machine vision and point spectroscopy realms to provide superior image segmentation for defect and contamination detection. In this paper, we have incorporated spatial and spectral information into hyperspectral imaging techniques. It can efficiently and non-destructively provide helpful information on both external physical and internal chemical characteristics of agricultural and food products. This paper has reviewed the sum of crucial aspect applications of hyperspectral imaging in precision agriculture. This paper reviews hyperspectral imaging’s current and past development in the agriculture industry, such as classification, chromatic, climatic, convergence, etc. This analysis aims to refer to potential work on key issues and promote deployed end-user solutions to fulfill the existing global sustainability objectives.

The present study aimed to assess the effect of implementing Rapid Prototyping (RP) in the product development phase on the sustainability of a conventional supply chain. The sustainability indicators of RP utilization were identified through a critical literature review and consulting two experienced RP practitioners to determine the key variables regarding the potential impact of RP on the supply chain components, with an emphasis on sustainability pillars. A generic system dynamics modeling was provided to simulate the RP-adapted supply chain and measure its sustainability performance. The simulation results indicated that RP utilization in the design phase could decrease the number of the assembly parts and material consumption in conventional manufacturing, while indirectly affecting the reduction of waste generation, logistics, CO2 emissions, processes, and the total costs which are related to environmental and economic aspects of the sustainable supply chain. Findings indicated that significant increase in operational skills and knowledge as the main indicators of the social dimension could remarkably reduce the failure rates and increase the quality of the products. This indicator plays a pivotal role in operational success and could be enhanced through training programs. Social sustainability indirectly affects environmental and economic sustainability. This was the first model-based research to examine the potential effects of RP on the sustainability of a conventional manufacturing. The proposed generic model encompassed the variables that could be applicable in every scenario to help decision-makers change values or add more variables within specific industry settings and choose the applicable ones, which in turn, accelerating the RP adoption in supply chains and providing insights for operational decisions regarding product design stage.

Every industrial organization, whether it deals with an assembly or a disassembly process, is definitely putting a huge focus on how to optimize its operative mode by reducing: process variation, frequent changes of production tools, quality issues, wastes. That’s why, disassembly plan generation (DP) is a very supportive tool that detects and identifies difficulties and probable blocking assembly/disassembly situations from the early design steps and avoid them. This anticipation is quite beneficial to manufactories point of view cost, time and quality of products as it returns with a remarkable reduction in production stopping time and products’ defects, as a result reduction in cost of production. In order to ameliorate DP algorithm decision generation and make it very similar to real manufacturing circumstances, this article comes with a new approach that combines between two main metrics, which are the Quality index (Qi) and the Timing index (Ti), as criteria while selecting optimal and feasible DP. Qi is calculated based on the failure mode, effects and criticality analysis method (FMECA), on the other side, Ti represents the real processing time index with reference to real manufacturing constraints (workplace, lay-out, work-flow, tools, machines…). To highlight the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an industrial gear box example is simulated and compared to a literature study.

Erworben im Rahmen der Schweizer Nationallizenzen (http://www.nationallizenzen.ch), This article investigates distances between therapists and their clients in their experience of the therapeutic alliance across the duration of the psychotherapeutic treatments in a naturalistic study. We looked at the working alliances from different vantage points—rupture, repair of ruptures, distances in the alliance impressions of both clients and therapists—and their correlation with treatment outcome. The only predictive variable of alliance ruptures was the inability of therapists to bond sufficiently with their clients regarding a sustainable working atmosphere, which could be identified through a continuous distant alliance rating by the therapists. Alliance ruptures in turn significantly predicted premature termination of treatments, whereas alliance ruptures per se did not necessarily predict treatment outcome. The paper discusses the possible role of the quality of therapists’ attachment styles as a potentially crucial variable in an effective working alliance in psychotherapy.

Urban areas all over the world are looking to become Smart Sustainable Cities (SSCs), i.e. sustainable urban environments that extensively use ICT and related technologies. However, little is known about the effectiveness of SSC initiatives in terms of sustainable outcomes and/or the factors driving such initiatives. This paper provides empirical evidence on the role of air quality as target of and trigger for SSC initiatives in Wallonian municipalities. Results from regression analyses indicate that, for those municipalities with a higher scope to achieve emissions reductions (low levels of past air quality) and a strong commitment in their smart city initiatives (level of implementation and orientation), SSCs are acting as a successful transnational local initiative for sustainability. They also support the view that sustainability is a major driver of the SSCs, since a better quality of air positively affects the probability that a municipality engages in sustainability-oriented (but also digitally-oriented) smart city initiatives.