Revisiting the influence of institutional forces on the written business plan:A replication study

The present paper re-analyzes and extends a study on institutional forces and the written business plan (Honig and Karlsson in J Manag 30(1):29–48, 2004). We attempt to examine to what extent critical decision making is evident in model and variable choice, and whether the implications provided by systematic replication efforts may serve to provide additional and perhaps unrecognized theoretical and/or empirical observations. We find that the key result—formal business planning does not affect performance, does not hold. In fact, we find evidence that formal business planning affects survival but not profitability. The re-analysis also reveals, that institutional antecedents to formal planning appear to be fragile and prone to researcher biases due to different coding and assumptions. Our study underscores the consequences of access to original data and coding material, and to rely upon current methodological explanations for subsequent analyses

Prognostic model to predict postoperative acute kidney injury in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery based on a national prospective observational cohort study.

Background: Acute illness, existing co-morbidities and surgical stress response can all contribute to postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery. The aim of this study was prospectively to develop a pragmatic prognostic model to stratify patients according to risk of developing AKI after major gastrointestinal surgery. Methods: This prospective multicentre cohort study included consecutive adults undergoing elective or emergency gastrointestinal resection, liver resection or stoma reversal in 2-week blocks over a continuous 3-month period. The primary outcome was the rate of AKI within 7 days of surgery. Bootstrap stability was used to select clinically plausible risk factors into the model. Internal model validation was carried out by bootstrap validation. Results: A total of 4544 patients were included across 173 centres in the UK and Ireland. The overall rate of AKI was 14·2 per cent (646 of 4544) and the 30-day mortality rate was 1·8 per cent (84 of 4544). Stage 1 AKI was significantly associated with 30-day mortality (unadjusted odds ratio 7·61, 95 per cent c.i. 4·49 to 12·90; P < 0·001), with increasing odds of death with each AKI stage. Six variables were selected for inclusion in the prognostic model: age, sex, ASA grade, preoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate, planned open surgery and preoperative use of either an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor or an angiotensin receptor blocker. Internal validation demonstrated good model discrimination (c-statistic 0·65). Discussion: Following major gastrointestinal surgery, AKI occurred in one in seven patients. This preoperative prognostic model identified patients at high risk of postoperative AKI. Validation in an independent data set is required to ensure generalizability

Combination of searches for heavy spin-1 resonances using 139 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A combination of searches for new heavy spin-1 resonances decaying into different pairings of W, Z, or Higgs bosons, as well as directly into leptons or quarks, is presented. The data sample used corresponds to 139 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at = 13 TeV collected during 2015–2018 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Analyses selecting quark pairs (qq, bb, , and tb) or third-generation leptons (τν and ττ) are included in this kind of combination for the first time. A simplified model predicting a spin-1 heavy vector-boson triplet is used. Cross-section limits are set at the 95% confidence level and are compared with predictions for the benchmark model. These limits are also expressed in terms of constraints on couplings of the heavy vector-boson triplet to quarks, leptons, and the Higgs boson. The complementarity of the various analyses increases the sensitivity to new physics, and the resulting constraints are stronger than those from any individual analysis considered. The data exclude a heavy vector-boson triplet with mass below 5.8 TeV in a weakly coupled scenario, below 4.4 TeV in a strongly coupled scenario, and up to 1.5 TeV in the case of production via vector-boson fusion

Age related endocrine patterns observed in polycystic ovary syndrome patients vs. ovulatory controls: descriptive data from a university based infertility center

ABSTRACT Objective To compare serum anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) and other endocrine parameters between patients diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and age-matched ovulatory women. Materials and methods AMH, DHEAS, FSH, LH, PRL, TSH and total testosterone (TT) were prospectively measured in oligo-ovulatory PCOS patients (n = 595) and in ovulatory non-PCOS women (n = 157) referred to a tertiary infertility center. Mean BMI was similar across the two study populations and there were no smokers in the sample. Patients in both groups were further classified into three categories by age: < 25 yrs, 25-34 yrs, and &#8805; 35 yrs. Selected clinical and demographic characteristics were tabulated for each group. Results Serum AMH was significantly higher among PCOS patients compared to non-PCOS controls in the non-stratified sample (7.54 ± 5.8 vs. 2.49 ± 2.0 ng/mL, respectively; p < 0.0001), while serum FSH, DHEAS, TSH and prolactin were similar for both groups (p > 0.05). As expected, mean (total) testosterone levels were notably different between PCOS vs. non-PCOS controls (0.84 ± 0.76 vs. 0.43 ± 0.38 ng/mL, respectively; p < 0.001), and mean AMH level was significantly lower in the oldest age category (> 35 yrs) compared to both younger control groups (p < 0.0001). Both DHEAS and total testosterone decreased with age among PCOS patients, although mean serum DHEAS for women age > 35 yrs was significantly lower than DHEAS measured in younger women with PCOS (p < 0.02). For PCOS patients, AMH remained relatively stable irrespective of age. Conclusion Although AMH can serve as a satisfactory marker of ovarian reserve, for PCOS patients the expected decline in AMH associated with reproductive aging appears attenuated despite ovarian senescence. In contrast, mean DHEAS levels were markedly lower among older PCOS women (> 35 yrs) compared to younger PCOS patients