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--- - |2 Abstract Bayesian methods incorporate model parameter information prior to data collection. Eliciting information from content experts is an option, but has seen little implementation in Bayesian item response theory (IRT) modeling. This study aims to use ethical reasoning content experts to elicit prior information and incorporate this information into Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) estimation. A six‐step elicitation approach is followed, with relevant details at each stage for two IRT items parameters: difficulty and guessing. Results indicate that using content experts is the preferred approach, rather than noninformative priors, for both parameter types. The use of a noninformative prior for small samples provided dramatically different results when compared to results from content expert–elicited priors. The WAMBS (When to worry and how to Avoid the Misuse of Bayesian Statistics) checklist is used to aid in comparisons. - Journal of Educational Measurement, Volume 55, Issue 3, Page 373-402, Fall 2018.

--- - |2 Abstract This study investigates the effect of multidimensionality on extraction of latent classes in mixture Rasch models. In this study, two‐dimensional data were generated under varying conditions. The two‐dimensional data sets were analyzed with one‐ to five‐class mixture Rasch models. Results of the simulation study indicate the mixture Rasch model tended to extract more latent classes than the number of dimensions simulated, particularly when the multidimensional structure of the data was more complex. In addition, the number of extracted latent classes decreased as the dimensions were more highly correlated regardless of multidimensional structure. An analysis of the empirical multidimensional data also shows that the number of latent classes extracted by the mixture Rasch model is larger than the number of dimensions measured by the test. - Journal of Educational Measurement, Volume 55, Issue 3, Page 403-420, Fall 2018.

--- - |2 Abstract Person reliability parameters (PRPs) model temporary changes in individuals’ attribute level perceptions when responding to self‐report items (higher levels of PRPs represent less fluctuation). PRPs could be useful in measuring careless responding and traitedness. However, it is unclear how well current procedures for estimating PRPs can recover parameter estimates. This study assesses these procedures in terms of mean error (ME), average absolute difference (AAD), and reliability using simulated data with known values. Several prior distributions for PRPs were compared across a number of conditions. Overall, our results revealed little differences between using the χ or lognormal distributions as priors for estimated PRPs. Both distributions produced estimates with reasonable levels of ME; however, the AAD of the estimates was high. AAD did improve slightly as the number of items increased, suggesting that increasing the number of items would ameliorate this problem. Similarly, a larger number of items were necessary to produce reasonable levels of reliability. Based on our results, several conclusions are drawn and implications for future research are discussed. - Journal of Educational Measurement, Volume 55, Issue 3, Page 421-432, Fall 2018.

--- - |2 Abstract This research derived information functions and proposed new scalar information indices to examine the quality of multidimensional forced choice (MFC) items based on the RANK model. We also explored how GGUM‐RANK information, latent trait recovery, and reliability varied across three MFC formats: pairs (two response alternatives), triplets (three alternatives), and tetrads (four alternatives). As expected, tetrad and triplet measures provided substantially more information than pairs, and MFC items composed of statements with high discrimination parameters were most informative. The methods and findings of this study will help practitioners to construct better MFC items, make informed projections about reliability with different MFC formats, and facilitate the development of MFC triplet‐ and tetrad‐based computerized adaptive tests. - Journal of Educational Measurement, Volume 55, Issue 3, Page 357-372, Fall 2018.

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Aim To cross‐culturally adapt and validate the Comprehensive Frailty Assessment Instrument (CFAI) among Chinese community‐dwelling older adults. Methods The Chinese CFAI was developed through forward–backward translations. An urban sample of 1235 community‐dwelling older adults received face‐to‐face interviews to examine the validity (construct validity and criterion validity) and reliability (internal consistency and test–retest reliability). Results The Chinese CFAI achieved semantic and idiomatic equivalence, and showed acceptable reliability and an expected factor structure, except for the social support domain. The exploratory factor analysis extracted five factors explaining 53.8% of the total variance of frailty. The confirmatory factor analysis showed that the data fit well to the second‐order factor theoretical model, with a root mean square error of approximation of 0.05, Tucker‐Lewis Index of 0.93 and Comparative Fit Index of 0.95. The receiver operating characteristic analysis presented an acceptable criterion validity using the Rockwood Frailty Index as an external criterion (area under the curve 0.80), with balanced sensitivity (65.31%) and specificity (81.19%) at the optimal 39‐point frailty cut‐off of the CFAI. Conclusions The Chinese CFAI has good validity and reliability as a practical frailty measure in Chinese community‐dwelling older adults.

Aim The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between physical activity (PA) and depressive symptoms in community‐dwelling older Japanese adults. Methods A cross‐sectional study design was used to obtain data from 3191 community‐dwelling older Japanese adults aged 70–95 years. Depressive symptoms were assessed using self‐reported scores on the Geriatric Depression Scale‐15. PA was objectively measured using an accelerometer worn for a maximum of 40 days, and average daily durations of light‐intensity PA (LPA), moderate‐to‐vigorous intensity PA (MVPA) and step count were calculated. PA was compared between participants with and without depressive symptoms by carrying out analysis of covariance and multivariable logistic regression analysis adjusted for all covariates by using propensity scores. Results Depressive symptoms were present in 598 participants (19.6%). A comparison of propensity‐score adjusted PA showed that step count (5059.6 ± 53.7 vs 5003.0 ± 112.1 count/day; P = 0.652) and moderate‐to‐vigorous intensity PA duration (23.0 ± 0.4 vs 23.8 ± 0.7 min/day; P = 0.358) were not significantly different between participants with and without depressive symptoms, respectively. However, participants without depressive symptoms had a significantly higher LPA duration than those with depressive symptoms (39.4 ± 0.3 vs 37.3 ± 0.7 min/day, respectively; P < 0.01). Conclusions The present results suggest that individuals with lower LPA have a higher risk of depressive symptoms. These findings imply that PA recommendations, especially for older adults, should emphasize LPA, which appears to be especially effective at preventing depressive symptoms.

Aim To evaluate the relationship between kidney function without diabetes and components of the frailty phenotype in community‐dwelling Japanese older adults. Methods Participants were 8343 residents who completed baseline assessments, classified into four categories according to eGFR. Frailty status was defined using five criteria: (i) slow gait speed; (ii) muscle weakness; (iii) low physical activity; (iv) exhaustion; and (v) unintentional weight loss. Results After multivariate adjustment, participants with the lowest kidney function were at higher risk of frailty (OR 1.57, 95% CI 1.02–3.50) than those with normal kidney function. In addition, after adjustment for multiple confounders, estimated glomerular filtration rate <30 was associated with a greater risk of the individual frailty components of weight loss (OR 2.14, 95% CI 1.11–4.12), low physical activity (OR 1.35, 95% CI, 1.01–2.54) and slowness (OR 1.82, 95% CI 1.36–3.77) compared with estimated glomerular filtration rate ≥60. Conclusions Lower kidney function was associated with a higher risk of weight loss, low physical activity and slowness among community‐dwelling Japanese older adults.

The paper examines the value‐generating strategies used in some of New Zealand's primary activities in a rapidly changing trading context in which the countries of East Asia increasingly figure. These strategies range from scaling up volume, with a consequent conspicuous impact on rural landscapes, to innovative value‐enhancing relationships linking producers, processors and consumers in processes which value landscapes for the contribution they make to provenance stories. Our argument is that higher‐value strategies are necessarily more intensely collaborative and involve a pursuit of engaged relationships, especially between onshore producers and manufacturers and consumers at a distance. We term this collaborative form of strategising as ‘the relationships economy’. We illustrate our argument using two case studies, dairying and merino. While there are great differences in scale between them, and dairying focuses significantly on volume‐generating capacity, there are players in dairying who are adopting higher‐value relationships‐based approaches similar to those developed in the merino industry. The common thread connecting the case studies is that of intentional enactment, which echoes earlier periods in New Zealand's trading history when considerable work was undertaken by industry participants to create new markets for primary products.

Objective To examine associations among substance use disorder (SUD) and measures of length of stay (LOS) and non‐psychiatric medical comorbidity (MEDCO) in older‐adult inpatients with serious mental illness (SMI), hypothesizing SUD would be related to worse clinical outcomes. Methods A cross‐sectional study analyzed medical records from 2010 to 2016 of 7258 inpatients with SMI ≥ age 50, obtained from a 274‐bed psychiatric hospital. Descriptive analyses examined prevalence rates for SUD status (+/−), individual drug classes, and total number of SUDs (polysubstance use disorders). Regression models examined the influence of 2 independent variables of interest: (1) SUD status (+/−) and (2) type of SUD (ie, specific drug), controlling for demographic factors and additional (non‐SUD) psychiatric disorders. Two dependent (outcome) variables were examined: LOS and MEDCO. Results The overall SUD rate was 26%; cocaine was the most common SUD (≈ 10%). SUD status and additional (non‐SUD) psychiatric diagnoses were significantly associated with longer LOS (both P < 0.001). For individual SUDs, cocaine, marijuana, opiates, and alcohol were all significantly associated with LOS (all P < 0.01). SUD status, age, sex, admission status, and race were significantly associated with MEDCO (all P < 0.002). For individual SUDs, barbiturates, opiates, and alcohol were all significantly associated with MEDCO (P < 0.01). Conclusions The prevalence of SUD in this sample underscores concerns related to treating older adults presenting providers with comorbid SUD and SMI. This combination may increase the burden and complexity of care, warranting further investigation into mechanisms and long‐term consequences.

Aim The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether the effect of one‐time brief additional counseling in periodic health examinations (PHE) through the National Screening Program for the Translational Ages in Korea is sustained after 2 years. Methods We collected data from National Screening Program for the Translational Ages participants in 2007 and 2008. To evaluate behavior change after 2 years, we collected the participants’ health behavior data 2 years later (2009 and 2010). We defined the basic group as participants who only received PHE, and the additional group as received PHE and counseling. We carried out propensity score matching to ensure that additional counseling was the only different variable affecting health behavior between the two groups. Results After propensity score matching, 50 630 remaining matched participants were matched for each group. Of these participants, 26.5% (26 855/101 260) were aged 66 years, and 60.9% (61 653/101 260) were men. The additional group showed a significant increase in odds of smoking cessation among the 66‐year‐olds (adjusted OR 1.173, 95% CI 1.003–1.372). This effect was significant, especially when the participants did not have hypertension or hypercholesterolemia (adjusted OR 1.193, 95% CI 1.000–1.423 for hypertension and adjusted OR 1.188, 95% CI 1.009–1.398 for hypercholesterolemia). However, there was no significant association for alcohol drinking and regular exercise. Conclusions The effect of one‐time brief counseling added to a PHE in cigarette smoking was observed only among the 66‐year‐olds. However, the effect was so small that it is doubtful to be clinically relevant. Repeated counseling is required to sustain the effect of the initial motivation of counseling. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2017; ••: ••–••

Many people believe that the abortion debate will end when at some point in the future it will be possible for fetuses to develop outside the womb. Ectogenesis, as this technology is called, would make possible to reconcile pro‐life and pro‐choice positions. That is because it is commonly believed that there is no right to the death of the fetus if it can be detached alive and gestated in an artificial womb. Recently Eric Mathison and Jeremy Davis defended this position, by arguing against three common arguments for a right to the death of the fetus. I claim that their arguments are mistaken. I argue that there is a right to the death of the fetus because gestating a fetus in an artificial womb when genetic parents refuse it violates their rights not to become a biological parent, their rights to genetic privacy and their property rights. The right to the death of the fetus, however, is not a woman's right but genetic parents’ collective right which only can be used together.

Literature examining WTO+ commitments in services trade agreements (STAs) has not considered the role of services regulation. We bridge this gap using a sample of 15 South/South‐East Asian countries, given the burgeoning trend of Asian economies towards services preferentialism and the largely WTO+ nature of their preferential services commitments. Our empirical findings suggest that Asian trading dyads with regulatory frameworks that are more similar and more trade restrictive tend to undertake higher levels of WTO+ commitments in their STAs. There is also evidence in our results, including by modes of supply, for WTO+ commitments in Asian STAs being driven by goods trade complementarities, alluding to supply chain dynamics in the region. Such results support the hypothesis that the heightened “servicification” of production generates a demand to lower services input costs arising from regulatory incidence and heterogeneity.

This article examines the “chicken‐egg” two‐way relationships between online consumer reviews and sales, and assesses the dual influencer and indicator roles of online consumer reviews in relation to purchase behavior. Considering the time factor, we adopt the methodology of Granger causality test and track 3,390 products on Amazon.com over a 2‐month period. The results reveal that a causality loop exists between online consumer review volume and sales. Specifically, our findings indicate that the volume of negative consumer reviews drive consumers' purchasing decisions, but the volume of positive consumers reviews only marginally affects purchasing decisions. Also, consumers generate more positive reviews than negative reviews after sales. Our results highlight the importance of negative consumer reviews; negative reviews not only lead to sales, but sales, in turn, lead to higher volume of negative reviews. The findings suggest an alternative strategy for practitioners to address negative online consumer reviews and highlight the awareness effect of online consumer review postings that can later convert into purchase behaviors.

This representative study of German search engine users (N = 1,000) focuses on the ability of users to distinguish between organic results and advertisements on Google results pages. We combine questions about Google's business with task‐based studies in which users were asked to distinguish between ads and organic results in screenshots of results pages. We find that only a small percentage of users can reliably distinguish between ads and organic results, and that user knowledge of Google's business model is very limited. We conclude that ads are insufficiently labelled as such, and that many users may click on ads assuming that they are selecting organic results.

Objective The objective of this literature review was to summarise current research regarding how consumers seek health‐related information from social media. Primarily, we hope to reveal characteristics of existing studies investigating the health topics that consumers have discussed in social media, ascertaining the roles social media have played in consumers’ information‐seeking processes and discussing the potential benefits and concerns of accessing consumer health information in social media. Methods The Web of Science Core Collection database was searched for existing literature on consumer health information seeking in social media. The search returned 214 articles, of which 21 met the eligibility criteria following review of full‐text documents. Conclusion Between 2011 and 2016, twenty‐one studies published explored various topics related to consumer information seeking in social media. These ranged from online discussions on specific diseases (e.g. diabetes) to public health concerns (e.g. pesticide residues). Consumers’ information needs vary depending on the health issues of interest. Benefits of health seeking on social media, in addition to filling a need for health information, include the social and emotional support health consumers gain from peer‐to‐peer interactions. These benefits, however, are tempered by concerns of information quality and authority and lead to decreased consumer engagement.

Objective To investigate the impact on patient waiting times of a role substitution model introducing an advanced allied health practitioner as the first point of contact within a geriatric outpatient context. Methods A pre‐ to postintervention design was used to determine impact over a five‐year period (2008–2012). All patients referred to the geriatric specialist outpatient department were included (n = 1514). Data relating to waiting times were analysed using one‐way ANOVA and post hoc Tukey tests to determine effects on patient waiting times. Results Waiting times were reduced from an average of 82 to as low as 35 days, in a context of increasing referral rates. Medical specialist capacity was increased through improvements to available outpatient times and reduced appointment lengths. Patients seen within their designated triage category timeframe increased from 47 to 86%. Conclusion Health professional substitution in geriatrics can be an effective intervention for reducing patient waiting times and improving access to care.

In this paper, we show theoretically and empirically that the US quantitative easing (QE) policy results in lower exchange rate pass‐through into the destination prices of Chinese exporters. In addition, the more the exchange rate in the export destination appreciates than the Chinese yuan, the stronger this effect becomes. Our model combines various marginal effects of QE policy on the destinations of Chinese exporters and variable markups of export firms due to strategic complementarities. The model predicts that the impact of US QE policy on the pass‐through of Chinese exporters depends on its spillover on the exchange rate between China and the export destination of different firms. We provide strong support for the model predictions using Chinese firm‐product‐level data with information on export destinations. The baseline result and the heterogeneity we find in the response of exchange rate pass‐through of Chinese exporters to US QE policy remain robust to alternative measures of samples and controls.

There is no abstract available for this paper.

This study investigates whether the European Union's funding of civil society organizations (CSOs) can foster equal access to existing channels of participation. This is analyzed by using data from 7,889 CSOs that are registered in the EU Transparency Register. Two criteria should be met for funding to combat inequalities among CSOs: the funding must support underrepresented interests, and it must increase their participation in the policy process. The results of a logistic regression analysis show that the Commission's funding scheme does support underrepresented interests but makes participation more unequal by also supporting already overrepresented groups. Furthermore, the analysis shows that the probability of a CSO having access to formal channels of participation significantly increases if it has received funding. The conclusion is that funding could be used more efficiently if the Commission were to consistently support underrepresented interests.

Aim To investigate whether being part of a community organization interfered with older adults’ overall functionality. The magnitude of responses to a community exercise program based on functional circuits in socially active and socially non‐active older adults was also investigated. Methods A total of 200 older adults aged ≥60 years from Requinoa, Chile, participated in the study. Participants were separated into two groups according to the level of social participation: socially active (SA) and socially non‐active (SNA). During an evaluation, data regarding the presence of comorbidities (Charlson Comorbidity Index), disability level (Modified Health Assessment Questionnaire), dynamic balance (Timed Up and Go test), muscle force (handgrip dynamometry) and sociodemographic conditions were collected. Participants followed an exercise program consisting of a functional exercise circuit including balance, resistance and aerobic exercises, twice a week, for 12 weeks. Results Both the Charlson Comorbidity Index and disability were higher in SNA compared with SA participants on inclusion. Both groups improved disability (Δ–0.25 patients [−0.5 – −0.0625 patients] for SNA and (Δ–0.125 patients [−0.5–0 patients] for SA) and balance (Δ–2 s [−3–0 s] for SNA and (Δ–1 s [−3–0 s] for SA) after training (P < 0.05 for all). Changes from baseline were statistically higher in the SNA group. Handgrip force improved only in participants in the SNA group (Δ1.7 kg [0.6–2.8 kg], P = 0.0001). No differences, however, were observed between the magnitude of improvements of handgrip between groups. Conclusions Although socially non‐active older adults had more comorbidity and disability than their socially active counterparts, they showed a higher response to a community exercise program. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2017; ••: ••–••.

Using quarterly data from 1995 until 2014, we investigate whether Euro Area (EA) membership influences the probability of a European Union Member State going through an episode of sudden stop or through an episode of bonanza, after controlling for a number of push and pull factors. Overall, our results do not support the claim that EA membership constituted a weakness during the recent financial crisis. On the contrary, we find that EA membership decreases the probability of a sudden stop, all else equal. We find no evidence that being part of the EA has a direct effect on the probability of bonanza. When allowing for interaction effects, our results suggest that EA membership might have mitigated the risk perception arising from higher government debt in the case of bonanzas.

This study investigates the sourcing patterns of Japanese export‐platform foreign affiliates in Mexico, which mainly export to the United States and Canada. We propose a novel approach to estimate intermediate input elasticities of exports by sourcing country. We find that, on average, Japanese export‐platform foreign affiliates in Mexico source intermediate inputs from third countries, including the United States and Canada, rather than from Japan and Mexico, suggesting that Japanese export‐platform foreign affiliates in Mexico are mainly integrated into the vertical production networks back and forth between Mexico, the United States and Canada. In turn, Japanese foreign affiliates selling domestically in Mexico source intermediate inputs not only within the North American Free Trade Agreement countries but also from Japan. In addition, we find that export‐platform foreign affiliates in Mexico use more labour‐intensive production than do foreign affiliates selling domestically in Mexico. This suggests that saving labour costs is one of the motives for export‐platform foreign direct investment in Mexico.

This work extends the masspersonal communication model (MPCM; O'Sullivan & Carr, 2017) by introducing anticipated interaction as a way to understand variations within the masspersonal continuum. Drawing from Thompson's mediated communication framework (1995), we argue that anticipated interaction paves the way for establishing a communicative relationship between interactants. In social media, this relationship is rooted in a sender's expectations for audience response and the imagined responsive audience. Using experience sampling, we show that anticipated interaction varies across social media. Further, we outline the relational and situational factors associated with expecting response and the specificity of imagined responsive audience. These variations and their sources characterize masspersonal communication as a socially and technologically situated practice shaped by multiple intersecting influences.

This research focuses on the identification of social roles and an investigation of their influence in online context. Relying on a systemic approach for role conceptualization, we investigate member's activity, shared content and position in the network within a consumer to consumer social media‐based community (SMC) around a product. This investigation led to the identification of ten core roles, based on three key elements: object of interest (product, practice, and community), main contribution type (sharing information and seeking information), individual orientation (factual, emotional). We propose an explanation about how these roles, through their positioning, participate in the community dynamics and how they contribute to the creation and diffusion of cookery as a social practice, shaping the periphery around this practice.

Political information sharing in social media offers citizens opportunities to engage with news and express their political views, but how do different patterns of online political information exposure, including both incidental and selective exposure, affect sharing? Using two‐wave panel survey data collected in the United States, we examine the relationship between incidental and selective exposure and their consequent links to political information sharing, across different levels of strength of political party affiliation. Our results demonstrate that incidental exposure to counter‐attitudinal information drives stronger partisans to more actively seek out like‐minded political content, which subsequently encourages political information sharing on social media. The results highlight the need to consider both types of political information exposure when modeling citizens' political behavior online.

Introduction Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) are common at all stages of Alzheimer disease (AD). Delusions in AD are associated with negative clinical consequences and may signal rapid disease progression. Hence, we sought to determine the prevalence of delusions in drug‐naïve (no cholinesterase inhibitor or neuroleptic medications) AD patients. Methods In this meta‐analysis, a search of the EMBASE, MEDLINE, and PsycINFO databases was performed. We selected studies reporting delusion prevalence measured by the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) in drug‐naïve AD patients. An aggregate delusion event rate with 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated. The I2 statistic was used to assess the magnitude of between‐study heterogeneity. Single variable meta‐regressions allowed examination of the effect of moderating factors and heterogeneity. Quantitative measures were used to appraise for publication bias. Results We identified 6 studies with 591 participants allowing calculation of the aggregate delusional prevalence rate. Irrespective of dementia severity, the aggregate event rate for delusions was 29.1% (95% CI: 20–41%; I2 = 84.59). No publication bias was observed. Conclusion This meta‐analysis calculates a 29.1% prevalence rate of delusions in AD patients. There is a trend towards increasing delusion prevalence in concordance with increasing severity of dementia. Given delusions are associated with poorer outcomes, the obtained prevalence should motivate clinicians to screen carefully for delusions. Current literature limitations warrant future studies, with sub‐analyses on dementia severity, and other neurobiological factors known to influence the presence of delusions.

The asylum system faces problems on two fronts. States undermine it with populist politics, and migrants use it to satisfy their migration preferences. To address these problems, asylum services should be commodified. States should be able to pay other states to provide determination and protection‐elsewhere. In this article, I aim to identify a way of implementing this idea that is both feasible and desirable. First, I sketch a policy proposal for a commodification of asylum services. Then, I argue that this policy proposal is not only compatible with the right to asylum, but also supported by moral considerations. Despite some undesirable moral features, a market in asylum facilitates the provision of asylum to those who need it.

In this article, I ask whether a principle analogous to the principle of clinical equipoise should govern the design and conduct of RCTs evaluating the effectiveness of policy interventions. I answer this question affirmatively, and introduce and defend the principle of policy equipoise. According to this principle, all arms of a policy RCT must be, at minimum, in a state of equipoise with the best proven policy that is also morally and practically attainable and sustainable. For all arms of a policy RCT, policy experts must either (1) reasonably disagree about whether the trial arms are more effective than this policy, or (2) know that they are.

Objective Despite the benefits of physical activity (PA) in older people with depression, many do not comply with the International PA guidelines. Thus, we investigated what factors influence PA participation among 915 community‐dwelling older adults (aged ≥65 years) with depression in 6 low‐income and middle‐income countries (LMICs). Methods Cross‐sectional data were analyzed from the World Health Organization's Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health. The sample was restricted to those with DSM‐IV depression or receiving depression treatment in the last 12 months. PA was assessed by the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire. Participants were dichotomized into low (ie, not meeting 150 minutes of moderate PA per week) and moderate‐to‐high physically active groups. Associations between PA and a range of correlates were examined using multivariable logistic regressions. Results The prevalence of low PA was 40.4% (95%CI = 34.8%–46.1%). After adjusting for age, sex, and country, larger household size and unemployment were significant sociodemographic correlates of low PA. Former smoking (vs never), anxiety, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), lower body mass index, bodily pain, asthma, chronic back pain, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hearing problems, stroke, slow gait, poor self‐rated health, higher levels of disability, and lower levels of social cohesion were identified as significant negative correlates of PA. Conclusions The current data provide guidance for future interventions across LMICs to assist older people with depression engage in regular PA. The promotion of social cohesion may increase the efficacy of future public health initiatives, while from a clinical perspective, somatic co‐morbidities, MCI, pain, and slow gait need to be considered. Key points More than 40% of older people with depression in low‐income and middle‐income countries do not meet physical activity guidelines. Somatic co‐morbidities, lower body mass index, pain, and slow gait need to be considered. The promotion of social cohesion may increase the efficacy of future public health initiatives.

Objective To determine how older people with dementia and their family caregivers experience dementia assessment services and preferences for future configuration of diagnostic services. Methods Qualitative, semistructured in‐depth interviews were conducted with nine individuals with dementia. In seven instances, the caregiver also took part in the interview, and on two occasions, the interview was with the person with dementia only. Results An important contact during assessment of dementia was the general practitioner, in particular working in a way or timeframe which provides clarity and comfort to the person with dementia and their family members. A problematic factor in clear diagnosis was when probable dementia was suspected during hospitalisation for another complaint. Participants expressed a wide range of views in terms of preferred settings for diagnostic services. Conclusion These findings highlight some key considerations, which should be included in future research leading to decisions about the design of dementia client services.

This article starts with discussing principles for a globally just system of refugee protection to which states contribute either by admitting refugees for resettlement or by supporting refugee integration in other states. Such a system requires relatively strong assurances of compliance by the states involved, which are absent in the international arena. In the European Union, however, the Member States form a predetermined set with prior commitments and supranational institutions that facilitate effective burden sharing. The article traces the failure of the EU's relocation scheme to meet this expectation to misconceptions how to determine fair shares, to incomplete prior harmonization of normative standards, and to contradictions between the Dublin Regulation's principle of assigning responsibility to first countries of entry, on the one hand, and the Schengen principle of open internal borders, on the other hand.

This article analyzes how Member States have used the opportunities and avoided the constraints of the EU's multilevel governance architecture to return unwanted migrants. Drawing on sociological approaches to the EU and a broad understanding of return policies, we investigate the ways in which the northern Member States, notably Germany and Austria, have increasingly relied upon the EU's operational and financial resources to achieve their goal of pursuing a bold return policy. A key ‘usage’ of Europe has been the pooling of political and financial power to externalize and informalize its return policy. At the same time, the northern Member States' deliberate – yet widely under‐researched – ‘non‐use’ of Europe, such as using and maximizing national leeway, has been an equally important strategy to reduce migratory pressure and achieve higher return rates.

Crowdsourcing has attracted increasing attention as a means to enlist online participants in organisational activities. In this paper, we examine crowdsourcing from the perspective of its ethical use in the support of open innovation taking a broader system view of its use. Crowdsourcing has the potential to improve access to knowledge, skills, and creativity in a cost‐effective manner but raises a number of ethical dilemmas. The paper discusses the ethical issues related to knowledge exchange, economics, and relational aspects of crowdsourcing. A guiding framework drawn from the ethics literature is proposed to guide the ethical use of crowdsourcing. A major problem is that crowdsourcing is viewed in a piecemeal fashion and separate from other organisational processes. The trend for organisations to be more digitally collaborative is explored in relation to the need for greater awareness of crowdsourcing implications.

Given the comprehensive influence of mindfulness on human thought and behavior, and the importance of moral reasoning in business decisions, we examine the role of mindfulness as an antecedent to moral reasoning through two studies. In Study 1, we propose and test a theoretically derived model that links mindfulness and moral reasoning, mediated by compassion and egocentric bias using a survey design. In Study 2, we examine whether mindfulness training enhances moral reasoning using an experimental design with graduate students of business management. The findings of Study 1 substantiate the positive association of mindfulness with moral reasoning. We found that this relationship is fully mediated by compassion and egocentric bias. The results of Study 2 suggest that mindfulness meditation training has a positive impact on individuals' states of mindfulness, compassion, and moral reasoning, and decreases egocentric bias. We relate the findings of the study with contemporary neurological research and discuss the theoretical, pedagogical, and managerial implications.

The Trans‐Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, if were it to be successfully implemented, would be one of the largest regional agreements ever seen. It is the only exemplar to date of a “mega‐regional” FTA for which negotiations have been successfully concluded, and a landmark in evolving approaches to Asia–Pacific integration. As such, quantitative assessments of its potential effects are of considerable interest. One of the most widely used techniques for evaluating the economic impact of regional trading agreements is numerical simulation with computable general equilibrium, or CGE, models. There have now been a large number of papers written that use CGE methods to analyse the potential economic impact of the TPP agreement under varying theoretical and policy assumptions. In this paper we provide a synthesis of the key results that have emerged from the literature, and introduce some new simulation results of our own to anchor the discussion.

In April 2005, Lucio Gutiérrez was removed from office in the context of a fast‐growing economy. With no economic hardship to fuel social outrage, the failure of Gutiérrez illustrates how political and institutional factors can be the most important forces determining presidential survival. In this article, we qualitatively analyse the path toward confrontation between Gutiérrez and the congressional opposition which led to his political demise. We find that Ecuador's weak democratic tradition working through more proximate causes – radicalism, normative preference for democratic institutions and a negative institutional equilibrium – coupled with other institutional and political variables accelerated Lucio Gutiérrez's fall from power.

This article examines the role of non‐financial interest groups in EU financial regulatory decision‐making. While regulatory capture theories clearly helped identify the causes for the incrementality in spite of the major shock the 2008 crisis had caused, this article will consider a range of regulatory policy initiatives that do not neatly conform with this theory. I examine the extent to which non‐financial groups are able to have their preferences met in the making of three different consumer policies: the Mortgage Credit Directive (MCD), stricter regulations of retail investment products (PRIPs/KID) and the reform of EU level supervisory structures. By employing a process‐tracing approach based on qualitative interviews to analyze political responses to the 2008 financial crisis, the article demonstrates that newly mobilized groups could translate key advocacy goals into policy by deploying counter‐expertise and co‐operating with policy‐makers in some cases but not in others.

The explosive growth of mobile apps makes it difficult for users to find their needed apps in a crowded market. An effective mechanism that provides high quality app recommendations becomes necessary. However, existing recommendation techniques tend to recommend similar items but fail to consider users’ functional requirements, making them not effective in the app domain. In this article, we propose a recommendation architecture that can generate app recommendations at the functionality level. We address the redundant recommendation problem in the app domain by highlighting users’ functional requirements, an element that has received scant attention from existing recommendation research. Another main feature of our work is extracting app functionalities from textural user reviews for recommendation. We also propose an effective approach for functionality extraction. Experiments conducted on a real‐world dataset show that our proposed AppRank method outperforms other commonly used recommendation methods. In particular, it doubles the recall value of the second best method under an extremely sparse setting, increases the overall ranking accuracy of the second best method by 14.27%, and retains a high diversity of 0.99.

For diversity and novelty evaluation in information retrieval, we expect that the novel documents are always ranked higher than the redundant ones and the relevant ones higher than the irrelevant ones. We also expect that the level of novelty and relevancy should be acknowledged. Accordingly, we expect that the evaluation algorithm would reward rankings that respect these expectations. Nevertheless, there are few research articles in the literature that study how to meet such expectations, even fewer in the field of biomedical information retrieval. In this article, we propose a new metric for novelty and relevancy evaluation in biomedical information retrieval based on an aspect‐level performance measure introduced by TREC Genomics Track with formal results to show that those expectations above can be respected under ideal conditions. The empirical evaluation indicates that the proposed metric, geNov, is greatly sensitive to the desired characteristics above, and the three parameters are highly tuneable for different evaluation preferences. By experimentally comparing with state‐of‐the‐art metrics for novelty and diversity, the proposed metric shows its advantages in recognizing the ranking quality in terms of novelty, redundancy, relevancy, and irrelevancy and in its discriminative power. Experiments reveal the proposed metric is faster to compute than state‐of‐the‐art metrics.

First embodied by the European Supervisory Authorities in 2010, agency governance in the financial sector has gained momentum with the creation of the Single Resolution Board (SRB) – an EU agency with considerable competencies in banking prudential policy. Within a short period, backed by the ‘ESMA‐Short Selling case’ judgment, agencies have progressed from supporting the European Commission with their quasi‐rule making, to a more prominent role in the decision‐making process, potentially influencing policy‐makers' agenda. By engaging in a qualitative analysis of legal documents, official texts and relevant scholarship, this research note examines the formal framework and practical aspects of SRB's governance, in order to substantiate whether its establishment presents a ‘qualitative increase’ in financial sector agencification. At the same time, the research note highlights problematic issues arising because of the limitations set by the Meroni doctrine arguing that the Board's wide powers ‘on paper’ may prove challenging to implement in practice.

Does corruption influence trust in national institutions in the same way as trust in international institutions? Did this influence change over the economic crisis 2008? Using data from the European Social Survey, we examined the association between corruption and trust in national and European parliaments before and after the start of the Great Recession 2008. We found that over the Crisis, the effect of corruption on trust in national parliament became more negative than it was before 2008. We also discovered a positive association between corruption and trust in the EU before the Crisis. That is, states with a higher level of national corruption seem to have more trust in international institutions, such as the EU. However, this relationship disappears after 2008. Our findings contribute to the debates on the impact of corruption on trust in national and international institutions, and on the consequences of the Great Recession.

Whereas most research focuses on non‐compliant implementation, we lack understanding of implementers' incentives and abilities to outperform national legislation. This study investigates a largely under‐researched question: to what extent practical implementation exceeds levels of legislative compliance with EU requirements? To explain this phenomenon, we focus on the responsiveness of implementing actors to external (participation in transnational networks) and domestic pressures (national societal attitudes) for compliance with EU requirements and the availability of additional expertise at the implementation stage (bottom‐up). Moreover, implementing actors are unlikely to respond in the same way to different types of national legislative problems (top‐down). The findings suggest that implementers often outperform the transposition of EU laws. Practical outperformance depends on the level of societal support for external policies and is a response to incomplete or ambiguous domestic formal rules.

Sociologists of science emphasize the crucial role of the day‐to‐day practices of scholars in defining academic disciplines and epistemological schools. Taking the case of EU Studies (EUS), this article examines the key practice of normative writing. I analyze the degree to which 70 highly‐cited journal articles of political science writing in EUS explicitly or implicitly suggest that European integration or its institutions or policies are bad or good, flourishing or declining. I use this discourse analysis, plus biographical data on the authors of texts, to explain a major temporal pattern. Degrees of normativity in EUS articles progressively declined from the 1970s until the millennium, but then subsequently recovered. Factors ‘external’ to scholarship, such as the progressive intensification of European integration and crises faced by the EU help explain this pattern. However they interacted in complex ways with ‘internal’ academic factors, such as generational replacement, ‘mainstreaming’ and rivalries between sub‐disciplinary and theoretical camps.

There is a growing phenomenon of brand advocacy, where brands pressure a producer country government to take pro‐worker actions such as respecting the rights of activists and raising minimum wages. This article examines the potential and limits of brand advocacy by developing a conceptual framework and analysing three recent cases of brand advocacy in Cambodia's garment industry. The study shows that brands' action and influence are shaped by issue salience, mobilization structures, political opportunities/contexts, and resource dependency. This article makes both empirical and theoretical contributions. This is one of the first studies delving into the advocacy role of brands in promoting labour rights and conditions vis‐à‐vis government. Moreover, the article develops a testable framework specifying the conditions under which brands are likely to respond, act collectively, and influence government for pro‐worker change. It also offers novel insights by applying social movement lenses and casting brands as social movement actors.

The paper investigates the spatial interdependence of US MNE investments in the MENA region. Given the variations in resource endowments, governance structures and degree of infrastructure availability in MENA countries, one would expect these variables to affect an MNE's choice of FDI location. We do find that domestic non‐spatial factors such as own country inflation and governance measured by bureaucratic quality as well as infrastructure affect a host country's inward FDI. We also found that only one measure of natural resource endowment; that is, oil and gas exports were instrumental in attracting FDI. This non‐spatial result is generally robust and invariant to the two methodologies employed in this study, that is the spatially autoregressive (SAR) model and the spatial Durbin model (SDM). We found that neighbouring countries’ infrastructure availability measured either by “electricity used” or “energy used” affected FDI inflows in a host country. However, this spatial impact was found only in the SDM model. The spatial effects of neighbouring countries’ economic and political conditions and resource endowments were, however, not observed on a host country's inward FDI. The insignificance of both the surrounding market potential and the spatially weighted FDI suggests a purely horizontal motive of MNE investments in the MENA region.

This paper examines the relationship between China's exports, export tax rebates and exchange rate policy. It offers an explanation for why China's exports continued to rise under RMB real appreciations during the Asian financial crisis. Based on a traditional export demand model, we test our hypothesis that the counteracting effects of China's export tax rebate policy have diminished the effectiveness of real exchange rates in facilitating the resolution of trade imbalances under the current pegged exchange rate regime. We find evidence that RMB real appreciations during the crisis negatively affected China's exports, but the negative effects were mitigated by the positive effects of export tax rebates. We also find evidence of a long‐run relationship between China's exports and the other explanatory variables. The empirical evidence suggests that under the pegged exchange rate regime with limited adjustments, real exchange rate movements alone cannot resolve China's external imbalances. The policy implication of this study is that China needs to redirect its decades‐long export‐oriented development strategy to one that emphasises domestic demand‐oriented development and to replace the current pegged exchange rate regime with a market‐oriented more flexible exchange rate regime.

Journal of Knowledge Management, Volume 21, Issue 5, Page 1013-1034, September 2017.
Purpose The aim of this paper is to frame the stakeholder-driven system mapping approach in the context of climate change, building on stakeholder knowledge of system boundaries, key elements and interactions within a system and to introduce a decision support tool for managing and visualising this knowledge into insightful system maps with policy implications. Design/methodology/approach This methodological framework is based on the concepts of market maps. The process of eliciting and visualising expert knowledge is facilitated by means of a reference implementation in MATLAB, which allows for designing technological innovation systems models in either a structured or a visual format. Findings System mapping can contribute to evaluating systems for climate change by capturing knowledge of expert groups with regard to the dynamic interrelations between climate policy strategies and other system components, which may promote or hinder the desired transition to low carbon societies. Research limitations/implications This study explores how system mapping addresses gaps in analytical tools and complements the systems of innovation framework. Knowledge elicitation, however, must be facilitated and build upon a structured framework such as technological innovation systems. Practical implications This approach can provide policymakers with significant insight into the strengths and weaknesses of current policy frameworks based on tacit knowledge embedded in stakeholders. Social implications The developed methodological framework aims to include societal groups in the climate policy-making process by acknowledging stakeholders’ role in developing transition pathways. The system map codifies stakeholder input in a structured and transparent manner. Originality/value This is the first study that clearly defines the system mapping approach in the frame of climate policy and introduces the first dedicated software option for researchers and decision makers to use for implementing this methodology.

Journal of Knowledge Management, Volume 21, Issue 5, Page 1035-1052, September 2017.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore and characterize knowledge integration approaches for integrating external knowledge of suppliers into new product development projects. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on a multiple, in-depth case study of six product development projects at three knowledge-intensive manufacturing firms. Findings Firms make purposeful choices to devise knowledge integration approaches when working in collaborative buyer – supplier projects. The knowledge characteristics of the supplier input guide the choice of either coupling knowledge sharing and combining across firms or decoupling knowledge sharing (across firms) and knowledge combining (within firms). Research limitations/implications This study relies on a limited number of case studies and considers only one supplier relationship in each project. Further studies could examine the challenge of knowledge integration in buyer – supplier relationships in different contexts, i.e. in relation to innovation complexity and uncertainty. Practical implications Managers need to make choices when designing knowledge integration approaches in collaborative product development projects. The use of coupled and decoupled approaches can help balance requirements in terms of joint problem-solving across firms, the efficiency of knowledge integration and the risks of knowledge leakage. Originality/value The conceptualization of knowledge integration as knowledge sharing and knowledge combining extends existing perspectives on knowledge integration as either a transfer of knowledge or as revealing the presence of pertinent knowledge without entirely transmitting it. The findings point to the complexity of knowledge integration as a process influenced by knowledge characteristics, perspectives on knowledge, openness of firm boundaries and elements of knowledge sharing and combining.

Journal of Knowledge Management, Volume 21, Issue 5, Page 1053-1076, September 2017.
Purpose Although mobile devices are ubiquitous among employees, their awareness and readiness to use mobile technologies for competence development is still not widespread and therefore requires further exploration. The purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual model based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to explain the determinants that affect employees’ intention to use mobile devices and software for knowledge transfer during the process of knowledge management. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual model based on the UTAUT with new variables concerning relative usability (RU) and user autonomy (UA) and new connections between the determinants was developed as a result of a subject matter literature review. A structural equation modelling approach was used to validate the model on the basis of data collected via a survey collected from 371 employees from 21 sectors, both public and private. Findings The UTAUT model extended by new variables like RU and UA explains employee acceptance of mobile technologies for knowledge transfer reasonably well. New proposed variables highlighted that the usability of technology compared to other solutions and user autonomy in the selection and the use of applications have the strongest impact on the employees’ intention to use mobile devices and software for knowledge transfer. Research limitations/implications This model explains the 55 per cent behavioral intention of employees to use mobile technologies for knowledge transfer. Even though it is quite high in terms of acceptance theories, some new variables should be explored. Furthermore, study does not verify whether m-learning acceptance for knowledge transfer is sector-specific. Practical implications Mobile technologies used for knowledge transfer by employees should allow for high UA through their ability to select solutions that they find convenient, use of preferred platforms, personalize applications and utilize devices and software in various environments. They should not be simplified and should have the same functionality and efficiency of use as alternative solutions like web and desktop applications, even if additional effort to learn them would be required. Mobile technologies that take into account UA and RU support the process of employees capturing, distributing and effectively using knowledge. Originality/value The elaborated model provides a valuable solution with practical implications for increasing mobile technologies acceptance for knowledge transfer. The study results contribute both to knowledge management and technology acceptance research fields by introducing two new determinants for the acceptance of technologies in knowledge transfer, such as UA and RU with several additional connections between existing UTAUT variables.