On Peer Review Standards For the Information Systems Literature

The quality of research published in journals is not only dependent on the work performed by authors, but also on the service undertaken by peer reviewers. In this paper, we take a two-pronged qualitative approach to establish an integrated set of criteria for reviewers, for the reviews they produce, and for the papers they review in the IS domain. These criteria are intended to be of value to three sets of stakeholders: authors, reviewers and editors. Authors should find them useful as they write, knowing in advance how reviewers are evaluating their work; reviewers should find them useful to improve the quality of the reviews of manuscripts; editors should use them to ensure that manuscripts are well written and that reviewers performed their tasks effectively. We discuss the implications of these criteria for the review process and identify areas for future research

Consumers discard a lot more food than widely believed : Estimates of global food waste using an energy gap approach and affluence elasticity of food waste

This work provides an internationally comparable consumer food waste dataset based on food availability, energy gap and consumer affluence. Such data can be used for constructing meaningful and internationally comparable metrics on food waste, such as those for Sustainable Development Goal 12. The data suggests that consumer food waste follows a linear-log relationship with consumer affluence and starts to emerge when consumers reach a threshold of approximately $6.70/day/capita level of expenditure. These findings also imply that most empirical models overestimate consumption by not accounting for the possibility of food waste in their analysis. The results also show that the most widely cited global estimate of food waste is underestimated by a factor greater than 2 (214 Kcal/day/capita versus 527 Kcal/day/capita). Comparison with estimates of US consumer food waste based on national survey data shows this approach can reasonably reproduce the results without needing extensive data from national surveys.</p

Validation of the self-management ability scale (SMAS) and development and validation of a shorter scale (SMAS-S) among older patients shortly after hospitalisation

Background: The 30-item Self-Management Ability Scale (SMAS) measures self-management abilities (SMA). Objectives of this study were to (1) validate the SMAS among older people shortly after hospitalisation and (2) shorten the SMAS while maintaining adequate validity and reliability. Methods: Our study was conducted among older individuals (>= 65) who had recently been discharged from a hospital. Three months after hospital admission, 296/456 patients (65% response) were interviewed in their homes. We tested the instrument by means of structural equation modelling, and examined its validity and reliability. In addition, we tested internal consistency of the SMAS and SMAS-S among a study sample of patients at risk for cardiovascular diseases. Results: After eliminating 12 items, the confirmatory factor analyses revealed good indices of fit with the resulting 18-item SMAS (SMAS-S). To estimate construct validity of the instrument, we looked at correlations between SMAS subscale scores and overall well-being scores as measured by Social Product Function (SPF-IL) and Cantril's ladder. All SMAS subscales of the original and short version significantly correlated with SPF-IL scores (all at p <= 0.001) and Cantril's ladder (for the cognitive well-being subscale p <= 0.01; all other subscales at p <= 0.001). The findings indicated validity. Analyses of the SMAS and SMAS-S in the sample of patients at risk for cardiovascular diseases showed that both instruments are reliable. Conclusions: The psychometric properties of both the SMAS and SMAS-S are good. The SMAS-S is a promising alternate instrument to evaluate self-management abilities

Consumers discard a lot more food than widely believed: Estimates of global food waste using an energy gap approach and affluence elasticity of food waste

This work provides an internationally comparable consumer food waste dataset based on food availability, energy gap and consumer affluence. Such data can be used for constructing meaningful and internationally comparable metrics on food waste, such as those for Sustainable Development Goal 12. The data suggests that consumer food waste follows a linear-log relationship with consumer affluence and starts to emerge when consumers reach a threshold of approximately $6.70/day/capita level of expenditure. These findings also imply that most empirical models overestimate consumption by not accounting for the possibility of food waste in their analysis. The results also show that the most widely cited global estimate of food waste is underestimated by a factor greater than 2 (214 Kcal/day/capita versus 527 Kcal/day/capita). Comparison with estimates of US consumer food waste based on national survey data shows this approach can reasonably reproduce the results without needing extensive data from national surveys

PReVENT - protective ventilation in patients without ARDS at start of ventilation: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background It is uncertain whether lung-protective mechanical ventilation using low tidal volumes should be used in all critically ill patients, irrespective of the presence of the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). A low tidal volume strategy includes use of higher respiratory rates, which could be associated with increased sedation needs, a higher incidence of delirium, and an increased risk of patient-ventilator asynchrony and ICU-acquired weakness. Another alleged side-effect of low tidal volume ventilation is the risk of atelectasis. All of these could offset the beneficial effects of low tidal volume ventilation as found in patients with ARDS. Methods/Design PReVENT is a national multicenter randomized controlled trial in invasively ventilated ICU patients without ARDS with an anticipated duration of ventilation of longer than 24 hours in 5 ICUs in The Netherlands. Consecutive patients are randomly assigned to a low tidal volume strategy using tidal volumes from 4 to 6 ml/kg predicted body weight (PBW) or a high tidal volume ventilation strategy using tidal volumes from 8 to 10 ml/kg PBW. The primary endpoint is the number of ventilator-free days and alive at day 28. Secondary endpoints include ICU and hospital length of stay (LOS), ICU and hospital mortality, the incidence of pulmonary complications, including ARDS, pneumonia, atelectasis, and pneumothorax, the cumulative use and duration of sedatives and neuromuscular blocking agents, incidence of ICU delirium, and the need for decreasing of instrumental dead space. Discussion PReVENT is the first randomized controlled trial comparing a low tidal volume strategy with a high tidal volume strategy, in patients without ARDS at onset of ventilation, that recruits a sufficient number of patients to test the hypothesis that a low tidal volume strategy benefits patients without ARDS with regard to a clinically relevant endpoin

Intrapericardial Extralobar Pulmonary Sequestration Presenting as a Prenatal Intrathoracic Mass

An intrathoracic mass, which persisted during the remaining pregnancy, was first seen during routine ultrasound examination performed at 20 weeks gestation. After birth, the child was asymptomatic. Echocardiography showed the mass to be located intrapericardially. The mass was electively resected via sternotomy 3 weeks after the birth. Microscopic examination showed normal lung tissue surrounded by pleura corresponding to the diagnosis of extralobar pulmonary sequestration. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the earliest described detection of such a lesion. Furthermore, this article reports the unique finding of a feeding vessel from the right pulmonary artery