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Kidney transplantation (KT) is the treatment of choice for end-stage chronic kidney disease (CKD) and is well known to improve the clinical outcome of patients. However, the impact of KT on comorbid psychological symptoms, particularly depression and anxiety, is less clear, and recipients of living-donor (LD) organs may have a different psychological outcome from recipients of dead-donor (DD) organs.

In total, 152 patients were included and analyzed using a cross-sectional design. Of these patients, 25 were pre-KT, 13 were post-KT with a LD transplant and 114 were post-KT with a DD transplant. The patients were tested for a variety of psychometric outcomes using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the 12-Item Short Form Health Survey (assessing physical and mental health-related quality of life), the Resilience Scale, the Coping Self-Questionnaire and the Social Support Questionnaire.

The mean age of the patients was 51.25 years and 40 per cent of the patients were female. As expected, the post-KT patients had significantly better scores on the physical component of the Short Form Health Survey than the pre-KT patients, and there were no significant differences between the two post-KT groups. There were no significant differences among the groups in any of the other psychometric outcome parameters tested, including anxiety, depression and the mental component of health-related quality of life.

KT and the origin of the donor organ do not appear to have a significant impact on the psychological well-being of transplant patients with CKD. Although the diagnosis and early treatment of psychological symptoms, such as depression and anxiety, remain important for these patients, decisions regarding KT, including the mode of transplantation, should not be fundamentally influenced by concerns about psychological impairments at the population level.

CKD is a serious condition involving profound impairment of the physical and psychological well-being of patients. KT is considered the treatment of choice for most of these patients. KT has notable advantages over dialysis with regard to the long-term physical functioning of the renal and cardiovascular system and increases the life expectancy of patients. However, the data on the improvement of psychological impairments after KT are less conclusive.

Increasing carbon productivity is an effective way to reduce carbon emissions, while boosting economic prosperity. For appropriate formulating and enforcement of energy saving and carbon emissions reduction policies in various sectors, it is of great significance to investigate the evolution characteristics and convergence modes of carbon productivity across the manufacturing sectors.

Using slack-based measure directional distance function (SBM-DDF) and global Malmquist–Luenberger (GML) productivity index, this paper measures the carbon productivities of 29 manufacturing subsectors in Shanghai, China, from 2001 to 2016 under the total factor framework. Furthermore, based on the convergence theories, it empirically examines the convergence of carbon productivity across these manufacturing sectors.

The measurement results suggest that the carbon productivities of the manufacturing sectors in Shanghai show an increasing tendency on the whole, and technical efficiency instead of technological change makes a main contribution to the increase. It is found that there is no obvious σ convergence across the manufacturing sectors in Shanghai, but there exist both absolute ß convergence and conditional ß convergence. Moreover, there is heterogeneity in convergence characteristics between the clean sectors and polluting sectors. The findings also show that firm size and industry structure have significant positive impacts on the growth of carbon productivities of the manufacturing sectors, whereas the impacts of capital deepening and energy consumption structure are significantly negative.

This paper measures the carbon productivities of the manufacturing subsectors by applying SBM-DDF and GML index, so as to improve the accuracy. It provides an insight into the convergence of carbon productivity across the manufacturing sectors.

Confronting the unveiled sophisticated structural and physical characteristics of permanent magnets, notably the samarium–cobalt (Sm-Co) alloy, This work aims to introduce a simulation scheme that can link physics-based micromagnetics on the nanostructures and magnetostatic homogenization on the mesoscale polycrystalline structures.

The simulation scheme is arranged in a multiscale fashion. The magnetization behaviors on the nanostructures examined with various orientations are surrogated as the micromagnetic-informed hysterons. The hysteresis behavior of the mesoscale polycrystalline structures with micromagnetic-informed hysterons is then evaluated by computational magnetostatic homogenization.

The micromagnetic-informed hysterons can emulate the magnetization reversal of the parameterized Sm-Co nanostructures as the local hysteresis behavior on the mesostructures. The simulation results of the mesoscale polycrystal demonstrate that the demagnetization process starts from the grain with the largest orientation angle (a) and then propagates to the surrounding grains.

The presented scheme depicts the demand for integrating data-driven methods, as the parameters of the surrogate hysteron intrinsically depend on the nanostructure and its orientation. Further hysteron parameters that help the surrogate hysteron emulate the micromagnetic-simulated magnetization reversal should be examined.

This work provides a novel multiscale scheme for simulating the polycrystalline permanent magnets’ hysteresis while recapitulating the nanoscale mechanisms, such as the nucleation of domains, and domain wall migration and pinning. This scheme can be further extended to simulate the part-level hysteresis considering the mesoscale features.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the merits of lesson study (LS) as a research approach for research in (science) education. A lesson was developed to introduce students to model-based reasoning: a higher order thinking skill that is seen as one of the major reasoning strategies in science.

Participants of the LS team were three secondary school teachers and two educational researchers. Additionally, one participant fulfilled both roles. Both qualitative and quantitative data were used to investigate the effect of the developed lesson on students and to formulate focal points for using the LS as a research approach.

The developed lesson successfully familiarized students with model-based reasoning. Three main focal points were formulated for using LS as a research approach: (1) make sure that the teachers support the research question that the researchers bring into the LS cycle, (2) take into account that the lesson is supposed to answer a research question that might cause extra stress for the teachers in an LS team and (3) state the role of both researchers and teachers in an LS team clearly at the beginning of the LS cycle.

This study aims to investigate whether LS can be used as a research approach by the educational research community.

There has been an unprecedented increase in online learning worldwide, including in teacher education. However, student lurking can be a common issue, leading to a non-interactive learning environment.

The authors employed a qualitative case study with thematic analysis to examine a novel “self-directed” pre-service teacher online degree module that engaged students in regular peer-feedback, which intended to promote student engagement and interactivity. The research questions were as follows: To what extent did the seminar series represent the principles of self-directed learning and were learning outcomes effective from the process? And, how effective was the use of peer feedback?

The thematic analysis revealed that student progression and course completion was successful, and it represented some principles of self-directed learning; but (a) it cannot be presumed that pre-service teachers are competent in giving (peer) feedback and (b) pre-service teachers may need specific guidance and training for providing competent feedback.

This paper is highly original in respect of its combination of the self-directed learning framework with use of peer feedback, to engage students in an interactive learning environment. The present paper identifies that peer feedback is a powerful tool in online learning; peer feedback can supplement self- and teacher-assessment; but it should not be assumed that pre-service teachers are competent in providing (peer) feedback – pre-service teachers may need specific training in providing feedback.

Grassland in Qinghai as the main type of ecosystem in this region is located in arid and semi-arid areas. The ecosystem is fragile and sensitive to climate change. Grassland ecosystem not only provides essential ecological and life functions for human society but also plays a vital role in mitigating and adapting to climate change. The empirical literature on grassland ecosystem services value (ESV) does not consider the impact of climate change and regional economic development level factors, which prevents policymakers from making appropriate decisions. This paper aims to analyze the influencing factors of grassland ESV assessment, and, based on the meta-prediction model, account the grassland ESV in Qinghai province.

To understand the value of grassland ecosystem services in China under climate change, this paper used 61 research literature on the evaluation of grassland ESV in China, including a total of 564 value observations to establish a value transfer database. Based on the meta-analysis method, this study has constructed a value transfer model, to evaluate the grassland ESV in Qinghai province, and an interpretation model, which can analyze if the independent variables affect the grassland ESV significantly.

The study finds that the evaluation methods, types of ecosystem service functions, climate change and grassland types can affect the grassland ESV significantly. Based on the meta-regression prediction model to evaluate the grassland ESV in Qinghai is US$1,542.67/ha/year. It indicates several targeted approaches to increase the grassland ESV, and climate change also has a specific impact on the value of grassland ecosystem services.

This study provides a scientific basis for grassland management related to the development of grasslands and ecological compensation, as well as promote the sustainable development of grassland ecosystems.

This paper contributes to the field of grassland ESV assessment in at least three aspects; first, it innovatively introduces the meta-analysis to carry out an integrated analysis of previous research results; second, it includes a broader set of influence variables in the analysis, including meteorological and economic factors; and third, it establishes a methodological basis for the field of grassland ESV accounting.

This paper aims to understand what drives people – their motivations, autonomous learning attitudes and learning interests – to volunteer as mentors for a program that helps families to ideate technological solutions to community problems.

A three-phase method was used to build volunteer mentor profiles; elicit topics of interest and establish relationships between those. The mentor profiles were based on self-assessments of motivation, attitude toward lifelong learning and self-regulated learning strategies. The topics of interest were elicited through content analysis of answers to reflection questions. Statistical methods were applied to analyze the relationship between the interests and the mentor profiles.

Bottom-up clustering led to the identification of three mentor groups (G1 “low”; G2 “high” and G3 “medium”) based on pre-survey data. While content analysis led to identifying topics of interest: communication skills; learning AI; mentoring; prototype development; problem-solving skills; working with families. Analyzing relationships between mentor profile and the topics of interest, the group G3 “medium,” with strong intrinsic motivation, showed significantly more interest in working with families. The group with the overall highest scores (G2 “high”) evidenced also substantial interest in learning about AI, but with high variability between members of the group.

The study established different types of learning interests of volunteer mentors and related them to the mentor profiles based on motivation, self-regulated learning strategies and attitudes toward lifelong learning. Such knowledge can help organizations shape the volunteering experience to provide more value to volunteers. Furthermore, the reflection questions can be used by volunteers as an instrument for reflection and by organizations to elicit the learning interests of volunteers.

Learning across teams and organisational levels enables organisations to deal with challenges that arise from changing contexts. Project-oriented organisations increasingly use programme management to cope with such challenges and improve performance. This paper aims to find out how different programme configurations affect learning across project teams and between project teams and their parent organisation in project-oriented organisations.

A case study of a project-oriented organisation involved in five infrastructure programmes was performed.

The studied programmes linked learning processes at group and organisational levels by creating relationships across project teams and their parent organisation and acting as a knowledge centre. Team learning benefits from the learning culture and stable environment that programmes create for project teams. This study indicates that a programme’s features and focus strongly determines whether a programme predominantly enhances learning across project teams or learning between project teams and their parent organisation.

Although programme management is increasingly used by project-oriented organisations, there are few studies relating to learning in programmes. This study provides new insights into learning across teams through programmes.

This study aims to analyze the effects of interorganizational cost management and opportunism on the reflexes of relational norms on satisfaction with interorganizational cooperation in franchised companies. The collective synergy arising from these relationships mainly seeks to increase competitiveness and commercial development. Windolph and Moeller observed that interorganizational cost management increases satisfaction in the relationship with partners, while relational norms attenuate the negative effect on supplier satisfaction.

A survey was carried out with managers of franchised companies in the food industry. The managers were identified on the social network Linkedin. After that, an invitation was sent to participate in the research. A total of 88 valid responses were obtained. The questionnaire consists of 40 extracted assertions. A pre-test was carried out to verify the comprehensibility of the wording of the assertions. Structural equation modeling with partial least squares (PLS-SEM) was used for data analysis. For analysis, validation and adequacy tests of the model were carried out, and executed in the software SmartPLS.

Survey results reveal that interorganizational cost management increases franchisor relationship satisfaction. Relational social norms mitigate the negative effect of opportunism on satisfaction with cooperation. And interorganizational cost management plays an important role in the relationship between relational norms and satisfaction with cooperation between franchisor and franchisees.

However, limitations resulting from the methodological design of the research must be considered in the interpretation of the results, at the same time that they provide opportunities for new research. As for the methodological aspects, the study cannot be generalized to other branches of companies, because it is a sector with franchises with specific characteristics. It should also be considered that the study was limited to investigating the proposed model, but other constructs can be observed in the literature. Finally, to empirically assess the constructs of the theoretical model, research instruments from studies other than those considered here can be used.

This study contributes with relevant literature and the management practice of interorganizational cooperation by empirically demonstrating the importance of interorganizational cost management as a management control mechanism and to mitigate the effects of opportunism between franchisor and franchisees.

It also contributes to the inclusion of social norms in the relationship between franchisor and franchisees with a view to increasing franchisee satisfaction with their franchisor, which also aims to mitigate the impacts of opportunism in this relationship. It contributes to the social order, as they reveal ways to mitigate possible conflicts between franchisor and franchisee and generate greater transparency in the relationship.

This study is justified by the fact that it investigates relational aspects of cooperation between franchisor and franchisees, a form of interorganizational cooperation that is growing in the market. It is also justified by highlighting the importance of interorganizational cost management as a means of mitigating the opportunistic effects between franchisor and franchisees, proving to be an important management mechanism. Research is especially important because interorganizational strategies have been spreading in corporate environments (Dekker, Ding & Groot, 2016) and the maintenance of the relationship is dependent on satisfaction with cooperation.