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Particular Topic (particular + topic)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	50%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	33%

Selected Abstracts

Agenda formation and accounting standards setting: lessons from the standards setters

ACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 3 2009
Bryan A. Howieson
M48 Abstract There are many studies on lobbying of accounting standards, but the technical agenda of regulators is taken as ,given' and why a particular topic was admitted to the agenda is not investigated. Agenda formation is important as control of the agenda determines which topics get regulated and the form of the regulatory response. A few studies have explored agenda formation across regulatory institutions but are largely silent on the role of individual decision makers and technical staff. However, the standards setters have sought to explain their agenda processes. This paper reviews statements by the members of accounting standards setting agencies about their experiences of agenda formation. It identifies insights gained from standard setters and makes some suggestions for future research. [source]

Meta-Regression Analysis: A Quantitative Method of Literature Surveys

JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SURVEYS, Issue 3 2005
T. D. Stanley
Abstract., Pedagogically, literature reviews are instrumental. They summarize the large literature written on a particular topic, give coherence to the complex, often disparate, views expressed about an issue, and serve as a springboard for new ideas. However, literature surveys rarely establish anything approximating unanimous consensus. Ironically, this is just as true for the empirical economic literature. To harmonize this dissonance, we offer a quantitative methodology for reviewing the empirical economic literature. Meta-regression analysis (MRA) is the regression analysis of regression analyses. MRA tends to objectify the review process. It studies the processes that produce empirical economic results as though they were any other social scientific phenomenon. MRA provides a framework for replication and offers a sensitivity analysis for model specification. In this brief essay, we propose a new method of reviewing economic literature, MRA, and discuss its potential. [source]

Intertopic information mining for query-based summarization

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 5 2010
You Ouyang
In this article, the authors address the problem of sentence ranking in summarization. Although most existing summarization approaches are concerned with the information embodied in a particular topic (including a set of documents and an associated query) for sentence ranking, they propose a novel ranking approach that incorporates intertopic information mining. Intertopic information, in contrast to intratopic information, is able to reveal pairwise topic relationships and thus can be considered as the bridge across different topics. In this article, the intertopic information is used for transferring word importance learned from known topics to unknown topics under a learning-based summarization framework. To mine this information, the authors model the topic relationship by clustering all the words in both known and unknown topics according to various kinds of word conceptual labels, which indicate the roles of the words in the topic. Based on the mined relationships, we develop a probabilistic model using manually generated summaries provided for known topics to predict ranking scores for sentences in unknown topics. A series of experiments have been conducted on the Document Understanding Conference (DUC) 2006 data set. The evaluation results show that intertopic information is indeed effective for sentence ranking and the resultant summarization system performs comparably well to the best-performing DUC participating systems on the same data set. [source]

Physical, psychological, and social sequelae following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: a review of the literature

PSYCHO-ONCOLOGY, Issue 2 2009
Catherine E. Mosher
Abstract Objective: This article reviews recent literature on adults' quality of life following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Methods: We identified 22 prospective reports with at least 20 participants at baseline through a search of databases (Medline and PsycInfo) and handsearching of articles published from 2002 to October 2007. If longitudinal data were not available or were scarce for a particular topic or time point, cross-sectional studies were reviewed. Results: Although physical, psychological, and social aspects of quality of life tend to improve during the years following transplantation, a significant proportion of HSCT survivors experience persistent anxiety and depressive symptoms, fatigue, sexual dysfunction, and fertility concerns. Despite ongoing treatment side effects, the majority of HSCT survivors resume their work, school, or household activities. Conclusion: We conclude that theory-driven research with larger samples is needed to identify subgroups of HSCT survivors with adjustment difficulties. Such research would examine survivors' evolving standards and definitions of quality of life to improve the accuracy and meaningfulness of assessment and incorporate biological, psychological, and contextual factors that may contribute to positive adjustment. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Stakeholder engagement opportunities in systematic reviews: Knowledge transfer for policy and practice

THE JOURNAL OF CONTINUING EDUCATION IN THE HEALTH PROFESSIONS, Issue 2 2008
Kiera Keown MSc
Abstract Knowledge transfer and exchange is the process of increasing the awareness and use of research evidence in policy or practice decision making by nonresearch audiences or stakeholders. One way to accomplish this end is through ongoing interaction between researchers and interested nonresearch audiences, which provides an opportunity for the two groups to learn more about one another. The purpose of this article is to describe and discuss various stakeholder engagement opportunities that we employ throughout the stages of conducting a systematic review, to increase knowledge utilization within these audiences. Systematic reviews of the literature on a particular topic can provide an unbiased overview of the state of the literature. The engagement opportunities we have identified are topic consultation, feedback meetings during the review, member of review team, and involvement in dissemination. The potential benefits of including stakeholders in the process of a systematic review include increased relevance, clarity, and awareness of systematic review findings. A further benefit is the potential for increased dissemination of the findings. Challenges that researchers face are that stakeholder interactions can be time- and resource-intensive, it can be difficult balancing stakeholder desires with scientific rigor, and stakeholders may have difficulties accepting findings with which they do not agree. Despite these challenges we have included stakeholder involvement as a permanent step in the procedure of conducting a systematic review. [source]

Public Health Warnings And Mouthwashes: Authors' Reply

AUSTRALIAN DENTAL JOURNAL, Issue 2 2009
MICHAEL J. McCULLOUGH
Editor's comment: I thank all of those who have taken the time to comment on the "alcohol in mouthwashes" issue. This topic has been given ample exposure and it is now time to close this debate. No further correspondence is to be published on this particular topic. Mark Bartold [source]